| Summary: | SchoolKits provides a handmade Backpack and Uniform, and an optional tiny personalised book and/or school supplies, for a refugee child struggling to afford schooling in Goma, DR Congo.
SchoolKits are sewn by Mama Wimbi, a co-operative of abandoned mothers working to become independent.
The project is supported by Bonvolo.net, a local charity, and SewAid International.
This project equips refugee children to attend school, and provides those in the sewing co-operative with employment skills and income to house and educate their own children. |
| Challenge: | Refugee families cannot afford school uniforms and supplies as well as food, housing and school fees for their young children.
Providing continuous employment, sufficient to pay for accommodation and school fees, for the sewing team that we have trained in Goma, DRC.
In crowded classes with water scarcity, it is difficult to wash a uniform often enough to prevent scabies outbreaks.
Affluenza and a surfeit of bad news reduces the happiness and resilience of Australian children. |
| Solution: | SchoolKits will provide a very user-friendly and educational giving experience for Australian children, which funds for the sewing team to produce SchoolKits for the most needy children in one of the most needy countries in the world, sometimes with an extra uniform/ school equipment/a Tiny Book.
This gives timely one-off assistance to children who have had no help at all, and allows the continuing development of our long-term community-development project in Goma. |
| Long term impact: | SchoolKit recipients can put the saved expenses towards paying the school fees due that year.
If fees are not paid in full, the child has to repeat the same grade over and over, so payment means progress.
For the team, continuous demand means steady work and economic self-sufficiency.
For the team's children, it means a safe home, adequate nutrition, school fees and a working role model. For the daughters especially, the example of a mother earning a living independently of men is very important. |
| Sponsored by: | Rotary E-Club of Greater Sydney, District 9685 |
| Other Partners: | Kowloon Golden Mile (District 3450) |