Hingham Mothers Collect Backpacks For West African Children

By Cynthia Rosenfeld

In the village of Gaoual, in Guinea, West Africa, the government will pay for a child to go to school if the child can provide his/her own supplies. The problem is that most children there are from poverty stricken families who cannot afford school supplies. As a result, most children do not learn to read or write. The Hingham Mothers’ Club is helping The Kerry Jon Walker Fund to collect backpacks full of supplies to ship to these children.

“It is a very straightforward process”, says Rebecca Baker, chairperson of the HMC effort. “All backpacks collected will be put on a boat and shipped to Guinea. The children will receive them and go to school. If you provide one backpack, you are sending one child to school.”

“Hingham Mothers’ Club is calling on the residents of Hingham to help with this very worthy cause”, says Liz Klein, President of HMC. If you would like to create and donate a backpack yourself, please note that they should contain pencils and a pencil sharpener, crayons, markers, lined and colored paper, chalk and erasers. To drop off your backpack, please contact Mikey Walker at mikeydwalker@comcast.net.  An additional $15.00 will purchase a uniform for the student. All backpacks are due by May 15.

The Hingham Mothers’ Club will hold a backpack-stuffing party at Rebecca Baker’s home. There, HMC members and their children will assemble the backpacks for the children in Guinea.  “We are so lucky to be able to give our children a solid education”, says Baker. “It is important to show our kids that not everyone has that, and that there is something that we can do to help.”

 If you would like to donate a ready-made back pack, please visit www.hinghammothersclub.org. There you will find a Paypal button that will enable you to donate a fully stocked backpack and /or a uniform. For more information, please visit http://www.hinghammothersclub.org.