SCHOOL IN A BAG

Whilst on a recent trip to the Isles of Scilly, our programme director, Phil Brown, found that his son met, and was playing with two young sisters sitting next to them on the boat and proceeded to chat to the girls father. He discovered that the dad, Luke Simon had an interesting and sad tale to tell from losing his brother in the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami in Indonesia. From this sad event, Luke has started a couple of charities and we found this one, School In A Bag, of interest, especially with our work with schools.

We’d be grateful if you would please read the information about this great charity and, if at all possible, see if there’s anything you can offer them – Maybe by donating or by offering time to help fill bags. This could be done by a class or an entire school.

School in a Bag is a Somerset-based charity, who deliver rucksacks filled with stationery, learning resources, eating utensils and a hygiene kit to disadvantaged and disaster-affected children around the world. Run by Luke Simon the Founder and CEO, School in a Bag was born out of the Piers Simon Appeal, a charity his family set up in memory of his older brother who died in the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004.

According to UNICEF figures, 262 million children are deprived of an opportunity to learn. On an individual basis, School in a Bag is a simple solution, providing children with quality educational tools to transform their learning capabilities enabling a lifeline towards a future out of poverty and hardship - on a world scale, educating the next generation is a key factor towards continued human development and global stability.

A typical School Bag contains: 12 pencils, a pencil case with 10 biros, 12 colouring pencils, a math set, a ruler, 6 exercise books (two each of lined, squared, plain), a water bottle, a lunch box (which includes a spork), a gym bag, a small towel, a bar of soap, a tooth brush, a tube of tooth paste and a wash bag. The cost to sponsor a School Bag is £20 and to ensure equality amongst the beneficiaries, the School Bags are all identical with brand new contents. School Bags shipped to international recipients are individually numbered enabling donors to track their progress via the www.schoolinabag.org website, whilst in October 2021, School in a Bag created a School Bag for the influx of refugee children arriving in the UK which is unbranded and non-numbered, allowing beneficiaries a level of anonymity when they integrate into school.

To date, over 131,000 School Bags have been distributed to children in 52 countries.

To learn more, please visit www.schoolinabag.org or to get in contact email: hello@schoolinabag.org