A movement named Mother’s Meal has been started involving various major organisms of the Claretians, responding to the new situation of hunger in the world due to the economic crises created by COVID 19. The vision is to ensure food for all, through a Family to Family support arrangement. It is already helping more than 3000 families to have food across four countries.
Mother’s meal was started by helping just five families on the 16th of July, to coincide with the 50th year of the Claretians in India by the Bangalore Province. The concept of Mother’s Meal is to provide sustained support for families in distress by providing a survival kit every month for a period of a minimum of one year. Kits with essential items are given to families most susceptible to hunger and death – families with persons with disabilities, terminal illnesses, widows, and elderly persons without any support.
Mother’S Meal Inauguration By Justice Kurian Joseph (Rtrd)
Coinciding with the concept of brotherhood of the whole world as proposed by Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti, Mother’s Meal is an attempt to find the solution for world hunger through the idea of a Family to Family Support. Families doing well are invited and requested to take care of just one more family.
Mother’s Meal program was extended to all 36 States in India on August 15th, the Indian independence day in collaboration with grass-root agencies, some of whom include Claretian missions of the North East Delegation in Assam, Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh. Many other Congregations, Dioceses, and non-Christian social agencies are part implementing it, in the Claretian style of “Doing it with Others”. They identify the needy families and reach the Kit on every 15th of the month. The Kit is worth Rs. 500 in India (8$) and Rs. 1000 in Macau and Uganda.
East Asian Delegation picked up the program and Macau Claretians started providing Mother’s Meal program to 50 migrant workers in August. From September, the Hong Kong Claretians supported the Mother’s Meal program in Nepal, where 125 families are fed in different locations, one of them a leprosy colony.
Mother’S Meal In Nepal – Chitwan
Mother’S Meal In China
On October 24th, the feast of our founder, St. Anthony Mary Claret, Mother’s Meal was inaugurated in Uganda in St Charles Lwanga Independent Delegation of East Africa by providing support to 100 families from three mission stations, again with the support of Macau Claretian group.
Fr Joy Mampallikunnel Distributing Mother’S Meal In Uganda
As per the report, the Secretary-General of United Nations Mr. Antonio Guterres stated on October 15th, World Hunger Day, 130 million people will be added to the existing 690 million already living in hunger around the world. Thus, there would be 820 million people worldwide, destined to live in hunger.
Claretians cannot be silent to this reality, as per Fr George Kannanthanam who initiated this ministry. He works towards promoting it as a global movement against hunger, which can be implemented throughout the Claretian world as well as with various other global networks. Find details in www.mothersmeal.life or contact director@theprojectvision.org
