Stahili and School Endz: You don’t need to go abroad to make a difference

By Tamar Begun

 

As a Canadian student living in the twenty-first century, accumulating stuff feels inevitable. Each September when school begins, something as basic as the latest hi-lighter gets replaced with an even brighter version before any ink has even dried. New supplies quickly replace the old.

Just prior to the start of Grade 10, I began to wonder while waiting in a long line at my local supply store about what I was about to buy, and why. As I dumped my gently used Grade 9 stuff in a desk drawer, I asked myself:  how could I move beyond a narrow “consume and discard’’ lifestyle?

As I researched, I learned that students in many parts of the world face enormous obstacles to learning because they lack basic school supplies like pens and pencils. I wanted to ensure these students had something to help them in their learning.

After raising awareness among students and faculty and maintaining an accessible drop box for gently used school supplies at my high school and former elementary schools, donations of quality supplies started pouring in. But we needed to find a partner to accept and distribute our school supplies to students in need without incurring expensive shipping costs. The many local organisations I approached only wanted sealed, newly packaged goods.

I was soon connected with Stahili’s Executive Director, Michelle, a Canadian living in The Hague. Stahili’s founder understood our dual goal of encouraging Canadian students to reduce their environmental footprint while making a global imprint by helping others. And, Stahili’s students in Kenya had an urgent need for geometry sets.

On one of Michelle’s trips back home to Canada, she came to my house to pick up the supplies we carefully packaged. Michelle took our packages to the Netherlands and then to Kenya where she distributed them to child survivors of trafficking to orphanages.

The success of my first school supply drive for Kenyan students ignited my determination to continue to help those in need to obtain the tools to succeed. School Endz connects with another organisation called ‘Books Without Bounds’ which recently delivered our school supplies to First Nations students within Ontario, Canada. As grade 12 concludes, my goal is to continue to strengthen the School Endz team and to maintain the initiative in years to come for Stahili, for Books Without Bounds, and beyond.

Doing something good doesn’t mean one has to travel thousands of miles. School Endz is proof that you can make a difference in the lives of people far away from your own backyard and your own home.