Helping Hand believes that every child should have the necessary stationery at the beginning of his or her school career. In 2008, Helping Hand launched the Schoolbag Project to distribute schoolbags and stationery to underprivileged Grade 1 learners all over the country.
Helping Hand’s School Case project was launched in 2008 and after only three months 9 000 needy Afrikaans-speaking grade ones already benefited from the project. However, the need for basic stationery and school equipment is five times larger than the means which Helping Hand could make available up to now.
Addressing the need
The two biggest factors that play a role in the success of a child’s school career is to what extent he/she is prepared for his/her first day of school and whether he/she has the basic equipment. Children’s school readiness is addressed by Helping Hand’s Lunchbox project.
To have hope is a choice one has to make. One cannot give hope to a child – he/she has to choose it. What then can one give a child so that he/she chooses hope? The answer is love. Loves comes in the form of hugs and attention and time and effort, but sometimes it is blue and packed chock-a-block with pencils, crayons, a ruler and an eraser. A school case is a gift of love with everything a needy child requires to feel he/she belongs to a group and has an equal chance.
Helping Hand’s School Case project seemingly addresses a one-dimentional need for stationery, but a school casw is so much more than equipment for school. It is a symbol of hope. A grade one child takes courage because of that bag in her hand, because that bag is her proof of your faith in her potential, proof that you support her in entering the new challenge of the big school. A school bag is proof of involvement, love and care, and this allows a child to take heart and to seize every development opportunity with both hands.
The School Case project is aimed at giving needy grade ones an equal footing.
The importance of basic school equipment is confirmed and emphasised by the United Nations (UN):
1. According to the UN’s Children’s Fund the first three years of a child’s school training makes a substantial difference to family planning, health care and a family’s income.
2. In many countries across the world a child will be refused access to school if he/she does not have the basic educational equipment. This forces a child into a life of illiteracy and means he/she remains caught in the cycle of poverty.
3. The UN also found that training is one of the biggest factors that has an impact on health, including infant mortality and survival expectancy during birth, as well as total fertility. Therefore a school case with stationery and even a health packet could have an ever-lasting and positive effect on a child’s life.
The start of the Schoolbag Project
The Schoolbag Project was the brainchild of Mr Chris Sealie, Principal of General Nicholaas Smit Primary School in Pretoria. Solidarity Helping Hand was initially involved in feeding projects at his school and numerous other schools. Mr Sealie told Helping Hand that underprivileged Grade 1 learners who did not have stationery were at a disadvantage. Helping Hand decided to help his school, but following discussions with several Afrikaans schools in Pretoria, it became clear that the problem had taken on immense proportions. Further research showed that the problem was nationwide.
In the current economic situation the need under the people has grown even bigger.
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