A letter written by students about their P4K initiative they started at their school.

   ”  One day in late October, our teacher Mr. Hynd told us about a charity; Pencils for Kids. Pencils for Kids is a Canadian charity that provides classroom supplies, programs, libraries, and schools for communities in Niger, Africa. They try to create a world that provides every child with an opportunity for an education. We were immediately inspired and wanted to help out.

     Both being from the Sri Lankan heritage, we know the feeling of children left in poverty and having no education. As in Sri Lanka, many kids feel this way. Not only do they not have an opportunity for education, but the families cannot afford to send them to proper schools. We wanted to make a difference; we wanted to change many things.

     After forming a club, we immediately wanted to start. We sold pencil necklaces made from stone, to raise awareness throughout the school. We wanted our school to know about this great charity, and how they can also make a difference, and help kids who deserve an opportunity for an education.

     Then we decided to host a penny drive at our school. With the help of Mme Martin and Student Council, we asked every kid to fill up a paper bag to a certain amount with pennies. They were then tallied, and the total was counted on a pencil meter. In order to raise the spirit of the School Community, we gave a prize to the first class that filled up their pencil meter.

     For a final event and fundraiser, we had a raffle at the school’s Family Movie Night. The winner of the raffle was rewarded with a $25 gift card to Chapters. Many people enjoyed this activity, and thought it was a great way to raise money. We had loads of fun.

     In total this year, Pencils for Kids Redstone raised an amount of $1410.87. We would like to thank our teacher Mr. Hynd for giving us this wonderful opportunity, Mme Martin for supporting us, and Redstone for helping us achieve this amount. We are very proud of ourselves for being able to raise awareness for kids in need of an education, and we feel honoured to have been able to be a part of this charity. We look forward to another year of continuing our charity contributions at Redstone!”   

 -Vithu and Thurgaa

Redstone Public School

This has been an incredible week for the villagers and children in Libore! Mike Mitchell and Dave Stahl from Project Play are there for 8 days, visiting every village in Libore and showing the coaches, teachers and students how to establish soccer (football!) clubs, leagues and competitive play. They are spending time teaching  training and practice drills to the coaches from every village and then playing with the children everywhere they go.  It has been a huge success thanks to Hamani Djibo and his fellow members of LIBO who spent days and hours preparing for this visit, organizing every village and explaining what would happen.
Project Play has donated 1200 balls to Niger this time. Some are being distributed to the villages in Libore, and then the commune of Libore will have the responsibility to share the knowledge and skills they have learned with other communes in the country.  The mentored becomes the mentor!  P4K’s connection to Project Play began three years ago when I contacted Mike Mitchell in Brazil, and said I heard he had soccer balls he wanted to bring to Niger! At the time, he was contemplating a return to Niger – he had been there as a Peace Corps volunteer 17 years earlier and had always wanted to return with soccer balls.  Soccer was an integral part of his life and when he was in the Peace Corps he was instrumental in helping the soccer team in Niger!  Mike did return not long after we spoke, and donated the first hundred balls in Niger to Libore. Now three years later, he and his lifelong friend and soccer pro Dave Stahl, are spending quality time in Libore training, coaching and laying the foundation for a true club, village and regional  network of soccer. It is beyond exciting to see the faces of the children and the anticipation of the people. Bravo Project Play!

Imagine, you are learning and you have one pencil for the whole class or you are sharing an eraser with five other children and it’s smaller than a penny! Imagine no desks, no chairs, no black boards…. Imagine having no school supplies. Sure you are thinking “Boy, that will never happen.” But, you are all wrong. Not only did it happen but it is still happening today. I am going to tell you about the organization pencils for kids. Read the rest of this entry »

Had a very early 6:30am breakfast with Judy and John to say goodbye as they were leaving for Benin. Hamani the wonderful picked them up to go to the airport and must have been up at 4:30 to start his day.  At 9am Hamani picked me up for the last day of errands……visit to some shops and the phone centre, and then off for a surprise visit to Nawa at DHL. It was terrific to finally meet the man who had been helping us ship our pencil necklaces from Niger to Canada. Nawa was truly a gem and told me that DHL has a tremendous sense of social corporate responsibility….that is why he went with his DHL team to donate furniture to a village in Libore a few months ago.  He felt that the since we had already forged a connection with DHL, why not continue to help Libore!!!! I was so thrilled to hear this. He was kind enough to also give me one of the DHL clocks for my wall…..when I told him how crazy I was about everything “DHL”…..kissing and hugging DHL trucks whenever I saw them as my way of showing support for this company that helped us when they didn’t even know who we were, but believed in our cause.  Read the rest of this entry »