Packages sent away for Project Love

 
In Malawi, school children write their daily lessons in the dirt.

A pencil is a lottery prize, carefully carved into five or six pieces and shared amongst brothers and sisters. A notebook costs an entire day’s wages or more.

Recognizing the drastic need in third-world countries like the landlocked southeast African nation – and this year in Haiti where an earthquakes levelled much of the country – students and teachers at St. Martin School have pitched in more than $1,600 to send supplies to 245 children in the two countries.

The money was raised through $3 donations from students, as well as from the proceeds of a school-wide raffle.

A normal kit, enclosed a large Ziploc back, consists of a pencil, notebook, ruler, and this year, thanks to Lowery’s, a pencil sharpener.

Nine-year-old Cristen Marleau, a Grade 4 student at the Mary Street school, said it’s children helping children they don’t know that makes the project so special.

"It’s brutal," she said, when told children used dirt to write on. "I wouldn’t want to do that. It feels pretty good because I know I’m helping somebody," Cristen said, after filling a re-sealable bag with school supplies, one of nine classes who took time Friday afternoon to lend a hand.

"It feels really good," said Matthew Bevilacqua, who dressed in red for the Project Love rally. "We’re kids helping kids. We’re learning from this that we’re doing a really good deed by helping kids all over the world."

The program, a nation-wide event, first arrived in Thunder Bay a dozen years ago, with little or no fanfare.

St. Martin teacher Patrick Klug said at first it was difficult to find volunteers, but it soon took off like wildfire when people realized just how desperate less fortunate children around the globe were for school supplies.

"The supplies there are very expensive. For example most places that Project Love deals with, both the mother and father would have to donate their (daily) wages to buy one notebook for one of their children. So it’s very expensive compared to Canada, to buy supplies," Klug said.

It’s an opportunity to give children the chance to learn and keep learning, rather than digesting their lessons orally and hoping to retain the knowledge.

"Writing in the dirt, you erase it. And after fighting with the mosquitoes and the heat and everything else – and maybe the rain – now you can actually take that home and study it and learn from it. You can take it home a share it with your friends and family, which you couldn’t do with dirt," said Klug, recalling the tale of a teacher who was in Africa when a recent Project Love shipment arrived, who said the children were literally in tears when given their package.