| Summary: | SchoolKit provides a handmade backpack and uniform, and a tiny personalised book, for a child struggling to afford schooling in Goma, DR Congo. These SchoolKits will be prepared by Mama Wimbi, a small co-operative assisting a group of abandoned mothers and internally displaced persons to become truly independent. The project will be supported by Solidarite Bonne Volonte, a locally registered charity in Goma, and SewAid International. This project will both equip children to receive further education, and provide those in the sewing co-operative with employment skills and income to house and educate their children. |
| Challenge: | We are addressing two layers of challenge in Congo and one in Australia: the challenge for Congolese families to afford school uniforms and supplies as well as food, housing and school fees for their young children, and the challenge to provide continuous employment for the sewing team that we have trained in Goma, DRC. They have skills but local work is not sufficient to pay for accommodation and school fees. Also there is an affluence challenge in Australia which reduces the happiness and resilience of our children. |
| Solution: | SchoolKit will provide a very user-friendly and educational giving experience for Australian children, which will provide the funding for the sewing team to produce SchoolKits for the most needy children in one of the most needy countries in the world. 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: | A child who receives a SchoolKit does not have to buy the components and so can put the funds towards paying the school fees due that year. If they 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) |