Two orphaned siblings sometimes eat only one meal a day – a cup of porridge provided by UK charity Mary’s Meals.

The teenagers’ parents died last year just four months apart leaving them to fend for themselves in rural Zambia.

Aged of 15 and 17, both siblings receive a cup of fortifying porridge at Nsefu Primary School every school day.

The 17-year-old boy said: “The porridge is great in terms of nutrition because I sometimes felt my body wasn’t healthy but now it’s better.” 

“Life is not easy in terms of food and school needs such as uniforms, books and pencils.”

“It hasn’t been easy. It’s been hard but we’ve had to accept the situation.”

His sister, who enjoys playing netball and football with her friends, begins to cry while we chat about the pair’s hardship on the steps of their school.

The Daily Express is raising money for Mary’s Meals to help the charity continue feeding millions of children across 18 countries.

The young boy insisted that neither he nor his sister have ever considered quitting school despite their difficulties.

He said: “Feeding ourselves has not been easy, especially when we are here at school as we cannot go out and look for food so we have to depend on porridge.”

“Sometimes Mary’s Meals porridge is the only meal we receive all day. Kind people also give us food but we mostly have to do pieceworks and rely on ourselves.”

“A teacher has offered to buy our uniforms for us but we have to rely on pieceworks to buy soap.”

He hopes to be a teacher when he finishes school while his younger sister wants to be a children’s nurse.

He said: “We’ve never considered dropping out of school. Our minds are focused on school because after losing our parents, the only thing that can help us is education.”

“We would still come to school even if there wasn’t any porridge. The most important thing is to learn.”

It costs just 10p on average to provide a child with a meal – adding up to £19.15 to feed a child for a whole school year – and this year all donations are being doubled up to £1 million.

To donate to Mary’s Meals, please visit www.marysmeals.org.uk/express

There are several ways generous readers can donate to the Express’s Christmas appeal this year:

Online:

www.marysmeals.org.uk/express

Freepost:

Please make cheques payable to Mary’s Meals and send to: Express Christmas Appeal, Freepost, MARY’S MEALS

Text:

Text EXPRESS followed by your donation amount to 70450.

Texts will cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message, and you’ll be

opting into hearing more from Mary’s Meals.

If you would like to donate but don’t wish to,

hear more from Mary’s Meals, please text EXPRESSNOINFO instead.

Call:

Freephone: 0800 698 1212