THE RESULTS

By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes. By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education. By 2030, build and upgrade education facilities and substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers.

We know that SchoolBags make up a crucial part of the educational jigsaw and without the basic resources our contents provide, learning is minimised to children trying to remember information. Yet, the provision of resources is not included in the targets mapped out by the UN. Our aim in the delivery decade from 2020-2030 is to champion the large agencies in to working with us so that we can collectively provide education alongside building schools and training teachers.

Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets.

By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities.

SchoolBags for some of our projects in Ghana are made in association with TrashyBags – an enterprising company that makes bags out of rubbish and recycled materials. The TrashyBag SchoolBag rucksack is made from recycled water sachets collected from the storm drains by a handful of the TrashyBag employees. The sachets are cleaned, cut open on three sides to form strips, sewn in to the sheets and transformed in to rucksacks by a team of seamstresses. The project is a win, win, win – Ghanians are employed, the environment becomes cleaner and the children get a fantastic re-purposed SchoolBag!

By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.

Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management.

The water bottle in our SchoolBags are crucial for children staying hydrated, not only during the school hours but also on the lengthy journeys to and from school that many of our students undertake.

Prior to receiving our SchoolBags, the children in The Gambia would crouch under the school stand pipe and collect water in their mouth before setting off on their walk home in high temperatures. This caused litres of spillage, leaving standing water that became breeding grounds for insects and diseases. The children were shown how to fill up their bottles, which created less waste and gave the children water for the lengthy walk home!

By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.

In our very first SchoolBag project in Swaziland, the provision of eating utensils were paramount to the children being able to receive lunch – for so many, this was their only meal of the day. Tragically, if children had nothing to eat with they were turned away from the food queue and went without. Our SchoolBags have always had Lunchboxes in them for this very reason.

In Nepal, the inclusion of a tiffin box in the SchoolBags mean that children can take their lunch to school – prior to this, children would go home at lunchtime and not return for afternoon classes.

The LunchBoxes and sporks provided by Light My Fire in our UK SchoolBags do nine things: Knife, Fork, Spoon, Plate, Bowl, LunchBox, Learning Resources – Colour, Shape and a Stencil to trace around!