Piers Simon Appeal reaches South America!

THE School in a Bag charity initiative in memory of a former YeovilCollege student is celebrating a significant landmark as it has made its first links with South America.

A total of 32 School Bags have been delivered to street children living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in a ‘first’ for the Somerset-based initiative that delivers rucksacks full of stationery, learning resources and eating utensils to poor, vulnerable and disaster affected children around the world.

School in a Bag, which is run by the Piers Simon Appeal, collaborated with the Bristol-based charity Flamingo Foundation to achieve this breakthrough into South America.

During a recent trip to Rio, the Flamingo Foundation delivered the School Bags to street children who stay at CIACAC, a house located in a slum called Parada de Lucas in the northern most part of Rio de Janeiro.

The Flamingo Foundation will be working with the CIACAC providing extra tuition to the young people at the project. According to founder Katherine Sparks, the School Bags have been instrumental in the launch of this project as the contents give the children everything they need for school.

Katherine said, “It was an incredible trip – and the kids loved the SchoolBags! These children never get anything of their own so they were absolutely over the moon. The kids’ faces literally lit up when they received them. It was so lovely to see.”

Luke Simon, charity liaison officer for the Piers Simon Appeal and School in a Bag, said: ‘’We are absolutely delighted that, through the Flamingo Foundation, we were able to give School Bags to the street children of CIACAC.

‘’The consignment to Brazil is now the twelfth country where we have handed out SchoolBags to underprivileged children, bringing our total distribution so far to 37,425.”

School in a Bag is now in discussion with Flamingo Foundation about the possibility of providing SchoolBags for more of the children their work supports.

For more information about School in a Bag – click on the charity’s advert on the home page of the Yeovil Press website.

Tags:
News.