This week we supported children’s charity School in a Bag with life-changing bag-packing as part of a wider charitable donation totalling over £10000.
The team were joined by CEO and Founder of the charity, Luke Simon, to pack schoolbags with learning essentials intended for children deprived of opportunities to learn around the world. School in a Bag provide these fundamental supplies to children and young people in deprived areas as part of an ongoing effort to tackle the global learning crisis.
The United Nations’ education agency UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) reports that 251M children and youth are out of school globally. The disparities between rich and poor nations is staggering, with 33 percent of school-aged children and youth out of school in low-income counties, compared to just 3 percent of high-income countries.
Sub-Saharan Africa, one of School in a Bag’s primary territories, hosts more than half of all out of school children and adolescents in the world.
With Luke’s help, we packed 100 backpacks with supplies to support children’s learning. The red bags include items many would take for granted, such as pencils, exercise books and maths sets, that are essential to children’s opportunities to learn. The bags also include everyday necessities like toiletries, a lunchbox and a reusable water bottle that equip children for school life. Each bag provided is numbered and trackable, providing complete transparency.
"It's been fantastic supporting School in a Bag. Getting the team to physically pack the bags has been really rewarding, and seeing exactly where and how these bags will change lives is so special. Giving back is and always will be a huge part of our business and we're delighted to help charities we know will make a difference." Jo Madeley, Managing Director, Cascade Productions
From our office in south Manchester, the bags will travel back to School in a Bag’s Somerset base before being shipped to territories across the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, where they’ll be gifted to local children. School in a Bag will use the remaining value of our donation to provide a further 500 bags in Pakistan, sourced, packed and delivered by the charity’s local partners.
"There are 250 million children who aren't in school every day. The contents of these schoolbags will really transform their ability to learn, and hopefully create a much better life for them. As a small charity we really value the generosity of businesses like Cascade. After all the more bags we pack the more lives we can change." Luke Simon, CEO & Founder of School in a Bag
School in a Bag started out in 2008 as an initiative of the Piers Simon Appeal (PSA), a charity Luke set up following generous donations received to assist in the clean-up of Koh Phi Phi, the island where his brother Piers was tragically killed in the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004. It became its own official charity in 2019. Head to School in a Bag's website to learn more.
