"Backpacks for Kids"
The objectives of the "Backpacks for Kids" campaign are:
- To promote education for all children by helping disadvantaged children have the basic supplies needed for school.
- To provides participants, especially students, with the opportunity to participate in finding solutions to problems in society, and develop a greater appreciation of the importance of acting as the responsible citizens of a global community.
What's in each backpack? We include all of the basics a child needs to complete a year or more in primary school. Children receiving the value them greatly, as these are all items that are expensive and hard to find in areas we support schools. Each backpack also contains a basic health kit with all of the basics a child needs to maintain good hygiene. More...
Help Create A GLP Science Room
GLP provides poor communities in various countries with a means to prepare young people for careers that require strength in S.T.E.M, i.e., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Most economically poor communities suffer from a shortage of teachers that are well trained in science, technology, engineering and math. And the absence of appropriate teaching and learning materials worsens the situation. GLP helps by supplying reference textbooks, science kits, computers, and training.
You can help by collecting multiple copies of science textbooks to supply an entire class. A more ambitious goal is to help create a science room that has textbooks, science kits, student microscopes and posters as well as perhaps an overhead projector and/or several computers.
Help Support A Kindergarten Classroom & Library
One of the main objectives of any early childhood teacher is to instill a love of reading and books in all students. Reading requires much skill and practice, and to practice you need books. It's simple, the more children are exposed to books, the more they learn to love them. One way GLP tries to accomplish this is to help support kindergarten rooms in our participating schools, especially by creating kindergarten classroom libraries.
A Kindergarten classroom library should be a place where students can go to look at, or "read" books. The classroom library area should be a clear, defined space in your classroom with places for students to sit and read. Some items you can add to create a more "homey", personalized touch are lamps, curtains, chairs or furniture, and beanbags. By creating an inviting area for reading, students are more likely to want to spend time in the library center. More...
An easy way to make is difference. Collect multiple copies of textbooks no longer being used in your classroom/school. You will be surprised at how many are sometimes tucked away in a hall closet. If you collect 4-5 boxes (enough copies for about 40 students) and mail them to one of our supported schools you will have made a contribution that will have an ongoing impact for more than a decade.
Above is the picture of Megan Watkins, a first grade teacher at Oak Knoll School (Summit, NJ). She and her students donated books from their "Spotlight on Literacy" reading system to create a full reading program for a recipient classroom.
We would also encourage you to fundraise and donate towards the ongoing costs that we incur in creating and maintaining these classroom libraries.
The teachers in many of our supported schools often work under severe financial and infrastructure constraints. However, they enter their classrooms everyday committed to making a difference in the lives of their students.
No one is probably more aware of the challenges of teaching than other teachers. That's also why teachers such as Ms. Rekha Naresh, a science teacher from New Jersey who donated science textbooks and teacher aids, make such a difference.
We also encourage teachers to reach out to their colleagues by creating a "teacher box" with items such as small toys for student incentives, pens, pencils, notebooks, calculators, teaching aids and other office supplies.