Mary's Meals seeks to encourage donations with animated film 'Saving Grace'
International children’s charity Mary’s Meals has worked with design and animation collective Toad’s Caravan to create the campaign film ‘Saving Grace’.
Launched to coincide with UN World Day of Social Justice last Thursday (20 February), Saving Grace tells the story of 10-year old orphan Grace, who lives in poverty in Malawi. As Grace has to forage and beg for food for her and her siblings she is unable to go to school.
The four-minute animation from Toad’s Caravan explains how Mary’s Meals provides a daily free meal for children at school, encouraging more children to go to school, eat, learn and – most importantly – break the poverty cycle.
Three versions of the film have been made to reflect the different costs to feed a child with Mary’s Meals for a whole school year in pounds, euros and dollars (£12.20, €14.50, $19.50).
“Having seen the powerful response to our half-hour documentary, Child 31, we’re well aware of the benefits of spreading our simple message through striking, accessible short films. We had a tight timescale and minimal budget—as a low cost charity, we’re committed to spending at least 93p of every £1 donated on our charitable activities—and Toad’s Caravan really delivered for us. The simple message and animation style convey perfectly what we want to achieve and our hope is that people are really engaged by Grace’s story and compelled to share the film,” explained Mary’s Meals head of fundraising for UK and Ireland, Daniel Adams.
Toad’s Caravan founder Joanna Susskind added: “Mary’s Meals is a charity that is based on one simple premise – that for many kids, every day means a choice between eating and going to school. Recognising and breaking that vicious cycle is the simple message at the core of everything they do, and creating a film to get that message across was a fantastic challenge. I hope this film will be a really useful tool for Mary’s Meals and support its work for many years to come.”
The film will be promoted across social media and online and will be included in an email campaign being sent to the charity’s existing supporters.