School Supplies Kit ($125)

Children need basic tools — pencils, paper and books — to help them build their knowledge and imaginations. In some of the world's poorest places, however, even the most basic school supplies are either too expensive for struggling families or simply unavailable. Conflict and disaster only worsen the poverty that renders learning an even more challenging prospect than it should be.

Why Help Is Needed

Restoring hope in children whose families and communities have been devastated by violence requires stability -- the normal routines of home and school. Yet too often their schools have been closed, casualties of war. Unless they can resume their education, these children face dim futures.

Mercy Corps In Action

Mercy Corps sees reopening schools as a vital step in community recovery from conflict. With this kit, we provide the materials for quality education -- which we believe is the linchpin of a hopeful future, both for the children who are eager to learn, and for the societies they will one day lead.

Bosco's Story

Today might look like any other for 14-year-old Bosco Odongo. Dressed in a pink shirt and brown shorts like his classmates, he carries a crisp new notebook and walks the dirt path leading to the village school.

The truth is, however, he's never been to school.

For most of the last 20 years, village schools in northern Uganda have been closed because of a brutal war. Bosco has lived in cramped, squalid displacement camps where food and clean water were in short supply — and classroom time was non-existent.

In light of recent peace talks aimed at ending the long-running war, Mercy Corps is helping children like Bosco begin their journey home. When asked what he wants to be when he's older, Bosco answers without hesitation. "A doctor," he states. "I want to heal people and save lives."

Except for a single chalkboard, Bosco's cement classroom is bare. Yet his vision and determination brighten his school, and his life, with promise.

School Supplies Kit ($125)
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Purchase of a Mercy Kit is a symbolic gift that supports Mercy Corps' worldwide programs to help children and families in need. The Breastfeeding Kit, Climate Change Kit, Fuel-Efficient Stove Kit, Cricket Farm Kit, Send an Orphan to School Kit, Plant a Tree Kit, Play to Heal Kit and Uganda Farm Kit supports those specific project funds. Proceeds from the sale of other Mercy Kits will be used where most needed.