A group of students half way around the world are grateful to a Maple Ridge girl and her class at Kanaka Creek elementary after they made a donation of gently used school supplies to their Ugandan primary school.
Inspired by her great aunt, who was visiting from African, Delilah Todd, who is in a Grade 5/6 split class, started collecting supplies in July, just before the end of the school year.
April Todd explained how her Delilah’s aunt told her the conditions students face in Uganda, that they don’t have things like felt markers and pencil crayons and that not everyone gets to even go to school.
“She told us about how [the schools] are really small and how there’s about 14 teachers, including the principal, and how there’s about 691 kids and how they lived in cement buildings and have flour for lunch and recess and not stuff that is good tasting to me,” said Delilah.
“They also didn’t have pencil crayons, or that many things. They used dirt and cement to write. They have pencils, but not that many,” continued Delilah.
The aunt also showed Delilah pictures of a school where there were no desks and the students had to sit on the floor for their lessons.
“And there were so many different grades in one class. It was unbelievable and really sad,” said Delilah.
After brainstorming with her father, Delilah asked her class to help and collected three boxes of school supplies, consisting of erasers, highlighters, felt markers, different coloured pens, scented markers, wax crayons, scissors, notebooks, paper, rulers, sharpeners and one small hole punch.
“[We collected] all their used school supplies that still had some use to it, but they wouldn’t have any younger brothers or sisters who were going to pass it on to. They were just going to throw it out,” Delilah explained.
She packaged them up, but when she asked about shipping, she found out it was going to cost $2,200, with no guarantee the packages were going to get there at all.
Delilah’s Grade 4 teacher from last year and her Grade 5/6 teacher this year decided to have a bake sale to help with the shipping costs and, with both classes participating, they raised more than $600.
Then Brandon Toothill, whose son is in Delilah’s class, stepped in to help. His company, C and D Logistics, was willing to ship the parcels for Delilah for $475. This meant there would be extra money that could be donated to another charity.
The parcels were shipped at the end of December and received by the school on Mar. 16.
Delilah’s mother received an emailed letter of appreciation from the headmaster of Bukeeka C/U Primary School on Mar. 19.
It began, “Comrade April Todd. I appreciate all your efforts towards the development of this school. I pray that God continues to guide you in your ministry.”
The letter lists the school’s enrollment, 791 students, and names the 14 teachers, one cook and the night watchman who work at the school.
A list of the school’s achievements include safe water for all children even in their homes by carrying jerry cans of water, roofing and shuttering of the kitchen, regular testing of learners, sensitization of the parents to change their attitude.
Some of the challenges listed include sickness of the teachers, especially one in particular that has been “bed ridden up to now”, under staffing, indecency of staff quarters, irregularities of some of the students, starvation of most pupils while at school and inadequate funding by parents.
This experience Delilah feels that children at her school and in the community are “spoiled a little bit”.
She would like to attempt another collection some time in the future but not for a couple of months because it was a lot of work having to count everything and check all the items.
But Delilah is proud of her efforts.
“It felt really good to know that I did something good for another country. It was a pretty amazing feeling,” she said.
