Singing to bring bread to Malawian children.

By Alastair Brian

As the holiday started, pupils from the Southside Primary School, St Angela’s,  proved they had the X Factor by writing a charity single for Malawi.

All proceeds from their song – ‘Miles Apart’ – will go to the Scottish charity Mary’s Meals to feed 60 Malawian children for a year.

St. Angela’s Head Teacher, Brendan Duff,  is very proud of his P6 pupils, who wrote the lyrics and melody with help from their teachers. He said: ‘During Religious Education (RE) the  pupils were learning about people we admire and they learned a little bit about a man named Magnus who started Mary’s Meals.

‘It was then decided, in music, to try to write a song that we could sell for the charity. The youngsters learned about writing lyrics through poetry and as a class they made up a melody.

‘As a school we are delighted with the result. It’s been a good experience for everyone to take part in the recording process.

‘Our aim is to see if we can raise as much money as possible for the charity.

‘We feel that this is a very worthwhile cause because Mary’s Meals currently feeds over 600,000 children every day across the world.

‘In Malawi it costs just £7.00 to feed a child for a year and our school wants to do everything we can to  contribute.’

Mary’s Meals was created in 2002 by Magnus McFarlane-Burrow, as an extension of his Scottish International Relief  (SIR) charity. A chance meeting with a family in Malawi,while he was working on a famine relief project, led to a whole new area of work. A mother was dying of AIDS and lying on the floor of her hut surrounded by her six young children.  She said that all that was left for her was to pray that someone might look after her children after she died.

Then Magnus asked her oldest son what he hoped for in life. His reply: ‘To have enough food to eat and to go to school one day,’ was not easily forgotten.

This was the main inspiration for the Mary’s Meals programme, which aims to provide one meal every school day for chronically hungry children. This way the children are encouraged to gain the education they need to lift themselves from a life of poverty.

Today the Mary’s Meals initiative provides meals to impoverished children in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and South America.

The charity’s Education co-ordinator said: ‘I visited St Angela’s  school recently and I was very impressed by their whole approach – from working out how much it costs to feed a child in maths;  to writing the lyrics for the song in music. This has been an enriching, learning,  experience for every young person involved. It’s also lovely that it’s children here helping less fortunate children in Malawi.

‘Mary’s Meals is delighted that the school chose our charity and we would like to thank everyone for their continued fundraising efforts.’

The song is available on iTunes, Amazon, and CDbaby, and costs 89p.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Miles-Apart/dp/B0086KJLM4/ref=sr_1_cc_1?

s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1338149886&sr=1-1-catcorr

http://cdbaby.com/cd/stangelasprimaryschoolch

http://itun.es/isV4Zv

Duncan in orbit

Glasgow based science writer Duncan Lunan has had an exceptionally good Christmas and is looking forward to more in the New Year. As this ENEWS letter is circulating, a two hour long interview he did with Nancy Wallace of the United States online BBS Radio will be broadcast. In it he will discuss his book –’Children from the Sky’. This is his investigation of the mediaeval mystery of the Green Children of Woolpit. Two children – green in colour – speaking a strange language and dressed in unidentifiable clothes, suddenly appeared in the village of Woolpit in Suffolk.

Listen online: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nancywallacewhatdoyouthink/2011/12/28/what-do-you-think and click on: “Download this episode”

Another programme from the online station will interview Duncan on Friday 6 January 2012. And other online radio stations have picked up on his work. The book can be ordered through Amazon and was accepted by Mutus Liber, publishers early in December. Duncan signed two new book contracts in September with international publishers Springer Science & Business Media.

Already he and his wife Linda are preparing for a book launch party and have ‘booked’ a cake from Sugarcraft of Mosspark.

Children from the Sky is expected to feature in an issue of 55 Life Glasgow magzine around now. (www.55life.co.uk)

Dunan’s other book signings are for ‘The Stones and the Stars: A New Stone Circle for Scotland’ and ‘Incoming Asteroid! What Could We Do About It?’ Both titles will be illustrated by Sydney Jordan from Dundee, the creator of Jeff Hawke, the world’s longest-running science fiction strip cartoon which appeared, worldwide, from 1954 to 1988.

The ‘Stones and Stars’ book is the story of the building of the first astronomically aligned stone circle in the UK in 3000 years – at Sighthill in Glasgow. Duncan was the manager of the Glasgow Parks Department Astronomy Project in 1978-79 which commissioned the circle. Funding ran out and it remains unfinished though current moves may allow it to be completed in 2012. In his volume, Duncan puts that project into a wider context of ancient astronomy and of earth’s place in the Solar System and the Galaxy.

The other title – ‘Incoming Asteroid!’carries on discussion among experts and thinking amateurs about what could be done if it was known there would be a Big Impact in 10 years’ time.

Duncan Lunan has written three previous books on space research, edited the first anthology of science fiction by Scottish writers, contributed to 19 other fiction and non-fiction books, and published 30 short stories and over 700 articles.

More information on Duncan and his work can be found at: www.astronomersofthefuture.net and

www.childrenfromthesky.com

 

 

Duncan’s three in a row

Glasgow based science writer Duncan Lunan has signed two new book contracts with international publishers, Springer Science & Business Media. Recently he signed another contract with Mutus Liber of Edinburgh for “Children from the Sky”, an investigation of the mediaeval mystery of the Green Children of Woolpit.

One of the new signings is “The Stones and the Stars: A New Stone Circle for Scotland”. Duncan Lunan was the Manager of the Glasgow Parks Department Astronomy Project, 1978-79, which built the first astronomically aligned stone circle in the UK for 3000 years (unfinished to date) The book tells the story of the project in the wider context of ancient astronomy and of our place in the Solar System and the Galaxy.

The second book is “Incoming Asteroid!: What Could We Do About It?”, the results of a discussion project, started in 2002, in which experts and amateurs have tried to answer the question:-  If we knew there was going to be a big impact in ten years’ time, what could we do about it? What would we do?

Duncan Lunan has written three previous books on space research, edited the first anthology of science fiction by Scottish writers, contributed to 19 other fiction and non-fiction books, and published 30 short stories and over 700 articles.

“Incoming Asteroid!” and “Children from the Sky” will be illustrated by Sydney Jordan from Dundee, the creator of Jeff Hawke, the world’s longest-running science fiction strip cartoon which appeared worldwide in 1954-1988.

Children from the Sky (cover illustrated above) should be available on Amazon this month. Green Children merchandise is available on the website. www.childrenfromthesky.com

Duncan said: ‘Just like buses, you wait 20 years for a publisher and then three come at once!   I’ve put ten years’ work into the mediaeval mystery, and waited six years after that to find the right publisher for it.   The megalith book has been hanging fire even longer, since 1982.   But now that I have a publisher for that one, I think it’s important to have the Sighthill stone circle completed so that the final improved version can be in the book.   Then it can be the visitor attraction that was originally intended.’