The Zakat Foundation of America

Oct 31, 2011

USA backpack beneficiaries

Just before school begins each fall we love when the local school children come to Zakat Foundation of America’s (ZF) offices to help with our Backpack Program. Students pack the basic school supplies that we have purchased into bags that will be delivered to needy students just before they begin school. When these volunteers get involved in this activity you can clearly see they get really excited about doing it!

This fall these students helped send backpacks on their way to other, more needy students. We partnered with:

• Blue Island Library
• A police and probation department working in local schools
• Habitat for Humanity’s family programs
• Local non-profit South Side Family Services, serving both Muslim and non-Muslims
• Local mosques

For our international backpack distribution, our donors send us backpacks that they purchase and fill with school supplies, hygiene items such as toothpaste and toothbrushes, and often a toy or stuffed animal. Some donors include photos of their own child as well as a letter, which their child has written to the child receiving the backpack.

In total, this year ZF distributed:

• 600 backpacks in Illinois
• 200 backpacks in Delaware, New Jersey, and New York
• hundreds of bags abroad to Tunisia, Haiti, and Pakistan

Thank you to all who were a part of this seasonal program. We had fun and brought surprised smiles to the children receiving the bags. The children who wrote letters or helped pack bags learned the joy of giving. What a great way to teach children how to become a kind and charitable force in the world!