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Copyright 2011 Global Backpack Project
WHO WE ARE
Global Backpack Project is a community-based nonprofit organization that collects and delivers backpacks and school supplies to children in need in the Pacific NW and around the globe.
Our Vision
We envision a world which supports education for all girls and boys so they may reach their unlimited potential in school and life.
Our Mission
Global Backpack Project exists to encourage a desire for learning by helping children feel prepared for school. With the help of our local community and partner organizations, we seek to make a difference in the lives of children just as they seek to make a difference for themselves and their community.
The People We Serve
Fathieh, age 10, and sister Farah, age 8, live on the outskirts of Amman, Jordan with four siblings. The sisters get good grades in school and have dreams of finishing high school, something no one in their family has done. Yet each day, there are obstacles they must overcome just to stay in school, let alone excel in the classroom. Like in other war-torn regions, daily conflict continues to disrupt their everyday life in tragic ways. Economic pressures on their family make it increasingly difficult to make school a priority when help is needed at home.
Global Backpack Project provided the two sisters with backpacks and school supplies—small, yet meaningful gifts that serve as a daily reminders that
You can do it. You can stay in school. We believe in you.
Both girls were very encouraged. The packs not only provided a practical way to carry books and supplies to school, they carried promise for a positive future.
These are the people we serve—children who wish to attend or stay in school, but whose families can’t afford or don’t have access to basic school supplies or uniforms. There are countless children just like Fathieh and Farah who have an unlimited potential to learn and grow when given the opportunity. We seek to make a difference in the lives of these children and their families, just as they seek to make a difference for themselves and their communities.
Our Team
Our team members are as diverse as the people we serve. Fueled entirely by volunteers, we are a dedicated group of professionals, parents, concerned citizens, children and adults who believe we can make a difference by helping provide access to education for children and families in need. Our organization is headquartered in Portland, Ore., but our volunteers live around the globe.
History
The idea for Global Backpack Project was conceived when two people realized they might be able to help a group of girls stay in school. While traveling to the Middle East to buy textiles and handicrafts for their shop in Portland, husband-wife team Samir Naser and Karla Bean discovered that many children didn’t have adequate school supplies or worse, were not even attending school because they felt unprepared. They identified a group of girls in Jordan who were on the verge of dropping out of school due to economic pressures, despite the fact that they made straight A’s.
Naser and Bean delivered a handful of backpacks filled with school supplies to these girls. It made a difference and encouraged the shop owners to do more. After all, these cultures had given them so much. They wanted to give back. Since that time and with the help of a group of committed volunteers, hundreds of backpacks filled with school supplies have been collected from the local community and delivered to school children in Jordan, Turkey, Cyprus, Morocco, Uganda and the Pacific Northwest.
“Before I had my backpack, nobody paid much attention to me. Now everyone wants to carry my bag for me on the way to school. I like going to school.”
Farah, age 8
Global Backpack Project
Delivering packs, pencils and promise to children around the globe
