To contribute, choose your next step:
- Make a donation. $50 pays for a backpack and school supplies for one child.
- Shop backpack bundles directly from our Amazon registry: Click to View
- Join a home visit. Deliver the backpacks and bless the family in person.
- Share this page with family and friends now!
2023 Backpack Delivery Window: August 1st - August 25th
Have a question or idea? Email the Voice of Refugees team at vor@vorservices.org.
"Who will my donations impact?"
Yasmin couldn't sleep, nervous about her first day at school in America. She hasn't been to a real school for three years, ever since her family fled her homeland.
"Will I make any friends? Am I going to understand the teacher? What's school like in America? Can I do this?"
All Yasmin knows is that a bus will come to take her (and her three siblings) to school. Her parents also just registered for ESL classes; the plan is to learn English in the morning and find two minimum wage jobs each to cover the $2,800 monthly rent. None of the family knows about the school website. No one is thinking about a backpack or the list of school supplies emailed by the teacher last month. The kids are going to learn the hard way: by feeling like strangers, left out and at the mercy of that kind classmate or teacher willing to reach out amid the chaos of "back to school".
"What's special about this backpack drive?"
This backpack drive seeks to rewrite the story for families like Yasmin's. Voice of Refugees exists to put God's love into action by helping refugee families stabilize, integrate, and thrive. In the past months, we've welcomed new parents and children from war-torn regions including Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Yemen. We know them by name and have heard their stories.
This year, we've identified 20 specific families who will benefit from extra support to start the school year well. We don't want to just give away backpacks, but seek to come alongside the least supported families with the love of Christ. We desire to see parents empowered to support their children, the oldest siblings filled with hope for their future, and the little children to have safe spaces to explore their multicultural identities.
