Poverty Sent Packing
In conjunction with Rotary Australia, St Catherine’s Junior School organises a biennial donation of stationery-filled backpacks for children in developing nations. This initiative was highlighted in The Stonnington Leader.
Featured in The Stonnington Leader on Tuesday 12 April 2016 page 10:
CHILDREN and teachers in East Timor are eagerly awaiting the arrival of donated stationery and teachers’ supplies from students at St Catherine’s School in Toorak.
Eight teacher resource boxes and 34 backpacks filled with school supplies (some of them pictured) have been gathered to send to schools in the Balibo region as part of the School in a Backpack program, which is run by the junior school with Rotary Australia.
In past years donations have helped students in impoverished communities in Zambia as well as East Timor. St Catherine’s teach-er and co-ordinator of the School in a Backpack initiative Victoria Baldacchino said the program provided St Catherine’s students with an insight into global issues.
“Students understand the power of their gifts, repurpose their own belongings or learn that small purchases, when put together with others in a collaboration, can make a huge impact,” Mrs Baldacchino said.
Rotary Australia representatives collected the backpacks on April 6.
