"The porridge helps me concentrate in class...before there were days when D had nothing to eat

HUNDREDS of pupils line up quietly in sun-bleached green uniforms - their clothing mismatched and ripped, handed down many times.

- By Frances Millar In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Some lack laces in their shoes, others wear woolly hats. It is winter in Zimbabwe, but the sun is beating down from a cloudless sky.

The children wait patiently for their turn to wash their hands, before they are handed a mug of hot porridge and a spoon. For many, it will be their only meal that day.

This is Amazwimabili Primary School in dusty Matabeleland North province, some 250 miles south-west of the capital Harare, where 554.

youngsters gather to learn, and to eat - thanks to a feeding programme which is delivered by the Scottish charity Mary's Meals.

They are crammed together in the shade of an acacia tree as they eat no shouts, laughter or playful squabbles. The atmosphere is subdued.

Unlike chatter in a UK school canteen, here mealtime has a greater significance. When food is scarce, eating is a serious business. Volunteer cooks and helpers in bright patterned aprons scoop porridge from a plastic barrel for the hungry children.

Sibert Ndlovu, 12, who walks two miles to school, says: "The porridge helps me concentrate in class and listen to my teachers.

"Before, there were days when I had nothing to eat."

He lives with his granny Angelina, 68, and grandpa Gideon, 72, who is in poor health and no longer able to work the land. Sibert's mother left when he was just two years old to find work in South Africa but has never returned or sent money home.

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