Students
Overseas
Foundation
Our Projects
Education is of the most basic human rights, and the SOS Foundation is committed to providing an equal and adequate education for all students around the world. We work closely with schools in developing nations to support students and educators with whatever they need to be successful. Our goal has always been to equip students with the tools they need to learn and thrive in a classroom environment, so that they can take the skills they have acquired and apply them in all aspects of their life.
The Backpack
Project
The Backpack Project is an initiative instituted by the SOS Foundation that aims to provide a backpack full of essential school supplies to underprivileged students at schools in Sierra Leone, Africa.
Why Sierra Leone?
How It Works
The project aims to fill hundreds of backpacks with the scholastic staples that many students in Sierra Leone lack access to. These school supplies are essential for students as they provide a foundation for their learning and allow them to be equipped with the tools they require to be successful. The SOS Foundation has connected with underprivileged schools in Sierra Leone that need assistance in providing supplies for their students. We prepackage the backpacks with the school supplies they need most and ship them to these schools in Africa so that students can use them.
What's Inside?
Sierra Leone is in great need of support, as the country has one of the worst education systems in the entire world. There are plenty factors that contribute to the challenges faced within the education sector, such as marginalization, poverty, and the country's great financial deficit. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are forced to abandon their education due to outstanding health problems or in order to work and provide support for their family at an early age. Sierra Leone's education sector requires the mobilization of more international resources to support learning from the primary level upward, and Sierra Leone shows clear evidence that by working together with a credible plan for utilizing the future, we can rehabilitate schools and save students across the country.
37%
of adults are
illiterate.
52%
of primary school students
drop out.
84%
education.
of citizens have no secondary school
The average number
years spent
3.1
in school is only
4x
Drop Out.
more likely to
Kids with illiterate parents are
40%
of primary school teachers remain
untrained.
5:1
students to
textbooks is
The average ratio of
Who We Support
The SOS Foundation is currently supporting the Empowering Children School through the Backpack Project. The school's mission is to minimize the high level of illiteracy in Sierra Leone and to offer a free education to children in poverty who cannot afford to further their education. The Empowering Children School is home to over 200 pupils that are currently in dire need of basic educational supplies such as whiteboard markers, books, notepads, and writing utensils. Other technologies like projectors, iPads, laptops, or kindles would also greatly enhance student's education and ability to learn. By donating, we can provide students with a more adequate education and help to create a brighter future for the children of Sierra Leone.
OUR NEW PLACE
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Where is the School Located?
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The Empowering Children School is located in the city of Freetown, Sierra Leone. It was was started in 2009, in the densely populated slums of Congo Town. The town is home to many impoverished families and lacks access to the most basic educational supplies. It is prone to natural disasters such as flooding disasters and highly communicable sicknesses. Despite this, the school offers hope of a better future to students in the region and motivates them to someday achieve their dreams.
5 Pump Lane, Freetown, Sierra Leone
+232 79 519227
OUR NEW PLACE
The Empowering Children School's founder, Ibrahim Kamara, started the school “because the conditions [in Sierra Leone] for children are desperate and [he] felt [he] needed to do something". Ibrahim states that he "was not happy with the way many children were living their lives or earning their livings, but how can I stop them when I am not strong enough to provide for them?"
He was devastated that many innocent children in his country were entering the vicious cycle of illiteracy, and he refused to stand by and let it happen. "I encourage them to become educated," he says, "It is the only gift I can offer them.”
Help Support the Backpack Project
Buy A Backpack $55
Help support a student in Sierra Leone by buying a backpack full of essential school supplies!
**Includes a backpack, a notebook, a pencil case, pencils, pens, an eraser, a folder and a ruler!
Buy A Backpack
