Clothing+Drive

=Success in the Clothing Drive!!!! :) =



==For the first project in the JMB key club, I am so impressed! On Wednesday (5/21), we shipped 4 boxes that weighed a whole whopping 57 lbs! ON Wednesday May 27th, the key club packaged 7 BOXES! Wow! Also, Mrs. Jessica Goldklang, our advisor, with a few key club member fact 3 to 4 more boxes! That makes up for a total of __14 BOXES __!!!!! (the boxes were not small either). That's a lot of clothes! Thank you to all that helped. We will try to ship the 7 boxes as soon as possible. On June 2 we sent another 5 boxes out.== ~Kathy :)

====UPDATE! The clothing drive is running smoothly so far. Today (5/21) around 9 am, a number of Key Club members assembled some outfits for the children in grades 1-7. With support from Kathy's church (Salisbury Bible Fellowship), our principal Mrs. Batts, and the loving folks at JMB we were able to ship off four boxes today at a whopping 57 lbs! But don't pat yourselves on the back just yet, we still need more help! If you can or haven't yet, please donate clothing to these children! And even better still, come on down to the library next wednesday and give a hand.====

Not completely convinced yet? Well here are some pictures to what some Key Club members are doing...

Here is some background information about the kids from St. Basils in Zimbabwe who need your help!

St. Basils School In Zimbabwe, education is no longer an assumed right and many children of this generation will not go to school at all. Children in Zimbabwe are growing up without basic skills like reading, writing and basic math while many of us take these things for granted. The right to be a child, to play, and even to have a single hot nourishing meal every day is no longer a given here particularly for the most vulnerable. St. Basils School started in 1967 with support from the Government of Zimbabwe. The focus of the school was to provide education for the40 or so children of the farm on which the school is located. Over the years, St. Basils has grown to provide education to nearly 700 children, most of whom come from the surrounding farms, as other educational opportunities in the area have decreased or disappeared. With the decline of the economic and political situation in Zimbabwe over the last decade, government support has disappeared completely. St. Basils is run completely on donations and support from well wishers. Teachers salaries, housing and food, all schools supplies, and the basic well being of these children is all supported by donations. Because most families are now living in severe poverty, St. Basils has also started to feed each child one meal a day so that they can be sure that at least they are getting that much. For many of these children, that is their only meal. Unfortunately, most kids dont even have a sanitary cup or plate to eat this meal in and so they are scrougning around and using anything they can find, often dirty or unsanitary containers. 700 Tin Mugs would be a fabulous donation to help these kids eat a clean, healthy meal once a day. While St. Basils is working hard to raise donations to get a uniform for each child, for many kids this will be their only decent set of clothes and so they will wear that uniform all the time, at school, at home, at play, in bed at night. St. Basils 700 kids are in desperate need of a sets of clothing (as an alternative to their uniform), so they can take pride in themselves, their appearance and maintain heatlhy clean personal hygeine. We are looking for donations of clothes (full sets, pants, shirts, underwear, socks etc...) for each child, tin mugs for each child, or cash with which to buy these things. Please help us if you can. **Write a letter to a company that might offer a discount or donation, start a clothing drive at your school, send cash or come up with your own idea and tell us about it!**

Posted by: Kathy Dunning Pictures by: Aisha Mohammed


 * Thanks to all that are helping!