Give a Mother’s Day Gift that has the Power to Change Lives

Give a Mother’s Day Gift that has the Power to Change Lives

Give a Mother's Day Gift that has the Power to Change Lives

Sunday 14th March is Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is a chance to celebrate, and reflect, on these wonderful people who guide and nurture us through life. Giving cards and presents is a token of our appreciation; a bunch of flowers, a box of chocolates. How about this year, give a gift that will inspire, instead..

Give your Mum a unique, trackable SchoolBag funded in her name (which you can add a personal note to as well). This will not only will it make her smile, it’ll make a child somewhere in the world smile too, when they’re given the tools they need to be able to get an education

Click here to fund a SchoolBag for your mum! You can add a note when going through the purchasing process that we then write in the gift card. We can even send it directly to her – this makes it super easy if you don’t live near your mum. If you’d prefer, have the card sent to you so you can add all the personal touches, this is fine too, just make sure you put your address in the order 🙂

Thank you for supporting our work. Without funding from people like you, we cannot distribute our SchoolBags. Globally there are 252 million children who are deprived of an education, and we aim to help as many of these children as we can – we feel that no child should be without the chance to learn.

Education matters.

Zoe Fox2021-03-12T13:24:08+00:00

Looking for an Online Speaker?

Looking for an Online Speaker?

SPEAKER ALERT!

Looking for a speaker for your service group?

Want to set-up an online fundraising activity for your business and kick-start it with a presentation that can be zoomed out to staff working at home?

Want to set-up a fundraising project with children at school?

Then we can help! Here’s how:

We can present anywhere!
Inspirational and motivational
They can be the length of time you desire
Incorporate a Q&A session – we find these are really useful!
Help with fundraising ideas and initiatives
Create a presentation to your style (more relaxed or formal, depending on what you’re after)

We present using the Zoom platform so we can show our slides and videos as we normally would with a ‘live’ presentation. It’s easiest if there’s a host from the group, school or business who allow their guests in, and then pass the reins to us to speak. The host can then introduce and Chair the Q&A session if preferred, otherwise we are happy to.

Our presentations are normally around 30-40 minutes long, with Q&A added to that, but we can accommodate to what’s needed. We also have the option to tailor our talk if there’s a specific theme that your group are following/studying. Such themes may be sustainability, certain countries we work in, the Sustainable Development Goals, tsunamis, or you may have an idea you’d like to talk through. Our general presentation covers a number of topics naturally through the work we do, and how we do it.

To contact us:

Please email: [email protected] to book in a presentation, or for more information!

Zoe Fox2021-03-12T12:17:51+00:00

Put Your Heart into Education This Valentine’s Day!

Put Your Heart into Education This Valentine’s Day!

What better gift for your loved one this Valentine’s Day, than a unique, numbered, trackable SchoolBag in their name. By doing so, you’ll give a child somewhere in the world the tools they need for an education, too!

Simply click the link below, write a short, personal message you’d like to leave for the person who’ll receive the gift, and once we have the email address to send it to, they’ll receive an eGift Card (with your message in) letting them know about their special present. They then track their unique SchoolBag number via the ‘Track my Bag’ section you can see pop up on this website 🙂

Gift your SchoolBag to a loved one, here!

What a SchoolBag means to a child

A SchoolBag is filled with stationery, eating utensils and most recently a hygiene kit. The stationery gives the more obvious tools to be able to do school work, and for many it’s the first time they’ve had a pencil to write with and paper to write on. Some children have nothing at all and have to memorise numbers and words – imagine just how difficult that would be. Alongside books for writing, drawing and maths, they also receive colouring pencils, biros, a ruler, a maths set with a compass, big rubber and pencil sharpener.

The water bottle means they can actually carry water with them (some children walk many miles to school, often in intense heat) and also a lunchbox to either take food to school, or to be able to have lunch at school (the first SchoolBags went to Swaziland, now known as Eswatini, where if the children didn’t have a plate or bowl, they were turned away from the lunch queue so would end up with no food – probably for the whole day as many were orphans). Our hygiene kits contain soap, a flannel, toothbrush, toothpaste and a face mask. It’s so important alongside education, children can keep themselves clean as well, and these simple items do just that.

All these contents, along with the all-important SchoolBag itself, comes to just £20 (and that includes getting it right to the child). If we can give a child the tools, they can then learn and grow – and who knows where it may take them. Today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders.

SIAB’s Valentine’s Competition!

Here’s what you’ve got to do…

1️⃣. Create your own poem in the ‘Roses are red’ format (please keep them clean, or we will have to delete them)

2️⃣. Post your poem in the comments on our Twitter, Facebook or Insta pages or email us: [email protected]

3️⃣. The competition starts now, and runs until midnight on the 11th February 2021

4️⃣. The winner will be able to gift a #SchoolBag in a loved one’s name, courtesy of us (worth £20)

5️⃣. Be fab if you can share this post!

6️⃣. It’s free to enter, and has no association with any social media platform

7️⃣. You can enter as many times as you like

8️⃣. Our decision of who the winner is, is final

9️⃣. There is no cash alternative for the prize

If you’re not a poet, you can always Gift a SchoolBag in your loved one’s name right here

Zoe Fox2021-03-12T12:10:38+00:00

Are You a Mask(ed) Hero? Find out more here!

Are You a Mask(ed) Hero? Find out more here!

Are You a Mask(ed) Hero?

With the recent introduction of hygiene kits (flannel, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste) into our SchoolBags as an additional item alongside the stationery items and eating utensils, it became important to add a face mask too due to the current worldwide situation. You can read more about the inclusion of our hygiene kits in this Blog in a Bag from December 2020.

Even with the extra contents, we are still able to keep the cost of our bags at £20, which is a fantastic result for us. To enable us keep these costs down, we’re asking the sewists* amongst you if you’re able to help us out by making some face masks to put in our SchoolBags? Not only that, but the variety of masks in the SchoolBags will be such fun for the children! They can be any coloured material and elastic, but ideally we’d love you to follow our pattern so there’s continuity (plus we’ve tested them out on children of different ages and they’ve come up trumps).

The pattern (below) is in an easy-to-follow template with all the instructions you should need. Please make sure your seams are nice and strong, with a double stitch if necessary. We want them to last wear and washing for as long as possible, for the children using them.

School in a Bag face mask template

Please share the pattern, and let us know if you’re making any. We’d love to hear from you!

Email us ([email protected]) if you have any questions about the pattern, or making the masks.

Please post your completed face masks to:

School in a Bag

Home Farm

Chilthorne Domer

Somerset

BA22 8RD

We look forward to receiving them, and of course putting them in our next consignment of UK-packed SchoolBags, ready to be shipped!

*Sewist – a blend of ‘sew’ and ‘artist’ as writing ‘sewer’ could be misconstrued, especially by Google‘s SEO and we’ll end up being placed alongside articles about drains, which we don’t want! We rather like this term 🙂

Zoe Fox2021-03-12T13:25:14+00:00

SIAB’s (Virtual) Boxing Day Walk 2020

SIAB’s (Virtual) Boxing Day Walk 2020

Virtual Boxing Day Walk 2020

We didn’t want to abandon our annual Boxing Day Walk this year, but with restrictions in place, we can’t do it our usual way. Therefore, we are running a virtual walk, meaning anyone can join us, from anywhere in the world – how exciting!

Our Boxing Day walk is a chance to remember Piers (our Founder & CEO’s brother), and all the others who also lost their lives in the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day 2004. It’s also a time to get out of the house and walk off your Christmas indulgences – as well as an opportunity to celebrate the year’s achievements of the charity.

Our normal walk is from our charity HQ in Chilthorne Domer nr Yeovil, to the beautiful National Trust property, Montacute House, and back (about 6 miles). It’s a chance to meet old friends and new, and maybe even have a sneaky tipple along the way! There’s no reason to change elements of this (we highly recommend the tipple!).

As this is usually a small fundraiser for us, we’re also asking that a donation of £10 is made per family/friend group to SIAB (obviously if you’re able to donate more, that would be amazing!)

So, here’s the idea for this year:

1. Decide on a walk route (could be from your house, or a short drive away)

2. Depending on Tier structures where you live, you may be able to grab a couple more friends to join in!

3. Make your £10+ donation to School in a Bag here (please put in the notes that it’s for the Virtual Walk, so we can track it)

4. We always have a minute’s silence at 10.36am (the time the tsunami struck the island of Phi Phi where Luke and Piers were), so if you’d like to join in on that, it would be very special

5. Take photos and tag us in (Facebook * Instagram * Twitter) so we can join in and see your fun, too!

Cetsat2021-01-21T13:16:35+00:00

Fundraise for SIAB Whilst You’re at Home!

Fundraise for SIAB Whilst You’re at Home!

Raising Funds for SIAB Whilst You're at Home!

You can still fundraise for us, even if you’re stuck at home! Whilst there may not be events (like Home Farm Fest) to attend, fundraisers to set-up through your school, business or service group, or a sports event to take part in, it doesn’t mean there aren’t still ways to help! Here’s how:

Online Shopping – Easyfundraising

Whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for School in a Bag with easyfundraising

There are over 4,000 shops and sites on board ready to make a donation – including biggies like eBay, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Sainsbury’s and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds!

All you need to do is:

Just click HERE and join for FREE!
Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping
After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to us at no extra cost to you whatsoever!

Online Shopping – Amazon Smile

Like Easyfundraising, you can be raising money for us when you use Amazon, too. With the amount of people using Amazon at the moment, that’s a lot of money that could come to us!

All you need to do is:

Just click HERE and join for FREE!
If you have a smart phone, download the app and just use this every time you shop (it’s exactly the same shopping experience, just we get money this way!)
AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of the net purchase price (excluding VAT, returns and shipping fees) of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to us

There are no catches or hidden charges and we’ll be really hugely grateful for your donations

Help us when you’re celebrating!

Let’s face it, there still won’t be any proper birthday celebrations happening for a while. No big parties or nights out with your mates. So how about doing something a bit different, and setting up a Facebook birthday fundraiser for School in a Bag?! It’s really easy!

All you need to do is:
1. Just click HERE!
2. A pop-up will appear asking you to set the amount you’re aiming to raise and the end date you want (normally a week or so after your special day)
3. It gets shared on your feed and page automatically, and then you can share your link as far and wide as you like (everyone will be able to see it as it’s public, but only those with a Facebook account can actually donate).
4. At the end of your fundraiser, Facebook then send us the money directly, all of it

Why stop at just birthdays – you can set one up for an anniversary or other special occasions too!

Thank you in advance for helping us out this way. Even when we’re not in this current situation, millions of pounds are spent shopping online, and we can be benefitting from it! What may take a few minutes to set-up, will then be really quick and easy to use every time you then shop, yet raising hundreds of pounds.

Happy shopping, or indeed happy birthday!

If you have any inventive ways to fundraise from home, or would like a little inspiration, then check out our Get Involved page. We’d love to work with you on any kind of fundraising initiative!

Zoe Fox2021-03-12T13:28:19+00:00

TRANSPARENCY

Give a Mother's Day Gift that has the Power to Change Lives

Looking for an Online Speaker?

SPEAKER ALERT!

Then we can help! Here’s how:

To contact us:

Put Your Heart into Education This Valentine’s Day!

What a SchoolBag means to a child

SIAB’s Valentine’s Competition!

Are You a Mask(ed) Hero?

Virtual Boxing Day Walk 2020

So, here’s the idea for this year:

Raising Funds for SIAB Whilst You're at Home!

Online Shopping – Easyfundraising

Online Shopping – Amazon Smile

Help us when you’re celebrating!