Several community initiatives have been launched to ensure that children from low-income families have access to essential school supplies for the upcoming academic year.
From donation drives to charity campaigns, these efforts aim to give both expatriate and local students the tools they need to succeed in the classroom.
Our Responsibility, a group of passionate Bahraini volunteers, has set the stage with three initiatives.
“Our first event, in collaboration with Y K Almoayyed and Sons, will witness 40 backpacks filled with school supplies being distributed,” the group’s founder Rayana Sayyar told the GDN.
“In addition, the Kewalram family will donate 75 backpacks, also filled with school supplies, and those will be delivered to families.
“Our final event will take children from an orphanage in Bahrain to LuLu Hypermarket to shop for back-to-school supplies. They will each receive a voucher of around BD30 and will be free to pick out the items they need.”
She added that all three events aim to help more than 300 children.
“Any leftover donations we receive will go towards purchasing additional supplies and delivering them to our more than 170 families that are registered with our organisation,” she said, adding that it is crucial to help families ensure that their children start the academic year off with all of the necessary equipment.
“For a child to succeed, they need to feel confident, and if a child goes back to school without supplies, while other children do, it creates a problem for them,” she said.
A’ali Social Charity Society chairman Aqeel Al A’ali told the GDN that he views education as the cornerstone of society, stressing that every child should have access to school supplies and learning opportunities in order to help build a prosperous future.
“We receive physical donations of school supplies of backpacks that will be distributed to children in the area,” he said. Cash will also be distributed to families to allow them to purchase individual items too.
“Some schools ask for specific stationary, so it is better to give the family the freedom to choose exactly what they need,” he explained. “We have around 375 students currently of different ages.”
He urged more big-hearted people in the kingdom, particularly those with ‘greater financial means’, to step forward to support these initiatives. “We need to support the children and their education, as it will help further build our country,” he added.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Women’s Association, Bahrain president Shahmeen Islam told the GDN that the society sponsors the education of around 50 students each year, in an effort to ensure that every child can pursue schooling without added financial stress.
“The Education Scholarship Fund is where most of our donations go to,” she said, adding that it has been around for more than 15 years.
“The students who receive the funds are extremely deserving and there is a diligent process that occurs when we identify the need of the family; we take it very seriously.”
She added that the students, ranging from grade two to grade 12, are predominantly Pakistani, though there are also children from other nationalities.
Most of them attend the Pakistan School and Pakistan Urdu School Bahrain.
n For more information on how to donate, contact the A’ali Social Charity Society (39751570), and @ourresponsibility_bh and @p_w_a_bahrain on Instagram.
julia@gdnmedia.bh
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