A Scottish charity has added more than 43,000 children to its global school feeding programme since last September.

Mary's Meals said it is now reaching 1,230,171 of the world's poorest children with a nutritious daily meal in school.

The charity provides support to impoverished communities across four continents, setting up community-run school feeding programmes that encourage children - who may otherwise be forced to work, beg or forage for food - to attend school and receive a meal that helps them to concentrate on their studies.

With millions across east Africa on the brink of starvation, the charity also recently launched an east Africa emergency appeal to help those affected by the crisis.

Across famine-hit South Sudan - where a civil war continues to rage - and drought-stricken Kenya, more than 46,000 children receive one good meal every school day through Mary's Meals.

Moses Kopurot Kenyi, who works for Mary's Meals' partner organisation in South Sudan, said: "Most of the children here are so malnourished and they have a lot of challenges.

"To keep them in school, we need to provide the Mary's Meals feeding programme.

"Without any meals, there will definitely be a very poor future for South Sudan. We thank Mary's Meals and we thank those who are helping Mary's Meals."

The charity began by feeding just 200 children in Malawi in 2002 amid a devastating famine and has since expanded to feed hungry children every school day across 14 countries, including Malawi, Liberia, Syria, Zambia, Haiti, Uganda, Thailand and India.

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, Mary's Meals' founder and chief executive, said: "The wonderful news that we are now reaching 1,230,171 children with Mary's Meals is thanks to the amazing efforts of our supporters and volunteers around the world who - by sharing their time, money, skills and prayer - allow us to keep our promise of a daily school meal to little ones in desperate need.

"Whether it's our work in South Sudan - a country where an adolescent girl is three times more likely to die in childbirth than complete primary school - or our newest programme in the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo, where children have endured years of unimaginable trauma, we can see that the daily meal Mary's Meals provides - coupled with the promise of an all-important education - is more crucial than ever."

The charity said it costs just £13.90 to feed a child with Mary's Meals for a whole school year.