“Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future”
– John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Education paves a way out of poverty yet millions of children around the world don’t attend school because they can’t afford school supplies. If they don’t attend school they don’t receive an education, and without an education they have very little chance of getting out of the slum. The simple fact is that fewer children are enrolling in schools – the reason is poverty. Instead of education, love and care, many children are badly exploited. Some parents don’t send their children to school because they cannot afford school supplies, uniforms etc. instead they send their kids to work at a young age. With the donated money we received from friends, family and The Optimist Club of Monaco South in Denver, CO we were able to purchase backpacks, school supplies and uniforms in time to send over one hundred children for the opening of classes on June 15, 2010. Our goal is to help over three hundred impoverished children this year and this is encouraging news to a lot of parents I met on this trip. Judith, one of the many parents who wish to send their kids to school this year, told me “My parents we’re so poor when I was young they couldn’t afford to send me to school. I only have a first grade education. I want my kids to have a better future than me but because food is more important education has to wait. I’m very afraid that my kids can never have the proper education, that they can never have a bright future. I don’t want this life for them.”
We have until June 25 to collect backpacks, school supplies, clothing, and of course monetary donations to help with our 2010 Back 2 School Backpack Drive. Below is a list of items that are needed. Contact us at info@childrenshopefund.org if you would like to donate supplies or clothing.
New or Used Items Needed:
- Children’s Clothing (for ages 4-12)
- Backpacks
- Pencils
- Notebooks
- Erasers
- Chalk
- Arts & Crafts Kits
- Textbooks (K-6, all subjects)
- Teacher’s Manuals (all subjects)
- Dictionaries
- Encyclopedias
- Books (Fiction and Non-Fiction, K-6 levels)
- Educational Videos or DVDs
- Educational Games (Scrabble, etc.)
- Flash Cards (all types)
