06 Sep, 2009
School supplies for those who need them most
How much did you spend on back-to-school stuff this year?
I lost track. We bought school supplies, clothing and footwear, and new lunch bags because last years still smelled rather funky even though I washed and bleached the living crap out of them.
It is sad to think that there are children in this world who can’t afford any of this stuff. No clothes. No shoes. Not even a pencil and a notebook. In some schools, students must return a pencil stub in order to receive a new pencil.
We have plenty and many have none.
It’s important to give something to those who are struggling. Not only because it’s the right thing to do but it teaches our own children that it’s the right thing to do too.
Ten Thousand Villages is organizing a school-supply drive. It’s very easy to participate. First of all, here’s the supply list.
- 4 spiral notebooks or notebooks with perforations (about 21.5cm x 27cm and 70-80 sheets each)
- 4 unsharpened pencils
- 1 ruler (flexible plastic; indicating both 30cm and 12″)
- 1 box of coloured pencils (12 or 24)
- 1 large pencil eraser
THAT IS IT.
No highlighters, markers, scissors, calculators, binders with iPod holsters, gluesticks or sticky tape. I bet you can pick up all the supplies on the list for under $10.
Volunteers have sewn up stacks of reusable drawstring cloth bags. You fill it with the supplies on their list. That’s all there is to it.
You can:
- 1) Pick up a bag at a Ten Thousand Villages location and bring it home to fill or
- 2) Bring the supplies in to a Ten Thousand Villages store and they’ll pop it in a bag for you.
The kits will be delivered to Ten Thousand Villages’ parent organization, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).
According to their website, this year they will be providing supplies to children in Iraq where families are unable to afford basic school supplies due to years of conflict and war. Kits will be also sent to places where conflict and famine persist such Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Jordan and Ukraine.
For more information about this program click over here. Deadline is September 30. Edited to add: both Ottawa locations are collecting school kits: 371 RIchmond Road in Westboro as well as 1174 Bank Street in Old Ottawa South.
My personal goal is to have TEN people agree to make a donation of school supplies.
What do you say Ottawa? Can we help?
