Lucy, 7, from Kenya

Lucy loves going to school, a far cry from the long days she used to spend trying to earn money
for food in Eldoret.

At the age of seven, Lucy’s mother sent her out onto the streets of Eldoret to find things to sell.

She’d leave the house at 6am without breakfast, not returning until late when there would often still be nothing to eat.

She spent her days foraging through rubbish dumps looking for plastics and scrap metal, trying to make a little money so her family could eat.

Lucy – who wants to be a dancer – is now in school receiving Mary’s Meals along with several of her brothers and sisters, including her older brother Peter, aged 15.

As Peter explains, “If we didn’t have food at this school, life would be very difficult for us. We would be forced to go back out to the streets.”

Their head teacher says, “Now there is Mary’s Meals, they come to school every day. It is the first step to achieving what they hope for in their lives.”

Meet the children coping with the realities of extreme poverty and hoping for a better future.