“The future of Iraq lies in the education of its children. We owe it to them, and to the hundreds of American men and women who gave their lives to bring them freedom, to give these children the basic tools of learning.”
Make a difference by donating school supply kits to Operation Iraqi Children, a non-profit organization founded by Gary Sinise and Larura Hillenbrand, which delivers much-needed supplies to children in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas where U.S. soldiers are deployed.
The information period will be held March 10-14, and the drive will end on April 4. Students are encouraged to create school supply kits following OIC’s directions, and can drop off the completed kits in front of the Kernodle Center for Service Learning (Moseley 230).
OIC School Supply Kits Checklist:
The most efficient and effective way to help Iraqi children is to create School Supply Kits which will be distributed to each student. Each Kit contains basic, badly-needed items that can make a world of difference to a child heading to school. Assembling standardized Kits ensures that each child receives the same number of the most needed items, facilitates customs clearance, and relieves our volunteers and soldiers of the time-consuming and labor intensive process of sorting and allocating random donated items. Kits are wildly popular among Iraqis, who often request them.
Assemble each Kit according to the following list of items. Please enclose NO additional items and be sure that all items are new and unused. Each Kit should contain:
Assemble each Kit according to the following list of items. Please enclose NO additional items and be sure that all items are new and unused. Each Kit should contain:
OIC SCHOOL SUPPLY KIT:
One pair of blunt-end scissors
One 12-inch ruler with metric markings
12 new pencils with erasers
One small pencil sharpener
One large eraser
One box of colored pencils (Crayons melt in the Iraqi summer heat!)
One package of notebook paper
One composition book
Three folders with inside pockets
One zippered pencil bag
Items should be packaged in one 2-gallon plastic zip bag. No additional items please. You can drop off the kits at the Kernodle Center for Service Learning (Moseley 230) before April 4th. Thanks!
More information about the organization: Operation Iraqi Children is a grass-roots program founded in early 2004 by actor Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, CSI: NY) and author Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit: An American Legend). Sinise and Hillenbrand created OIC to give concerned Americans a way to reach out to war-stricken Iraqi children and support American troops in their efforts to assist them. Since its inception, OIC has delivered to Iraq over 200,000 school supply kits, along with more than half a million toys and thousands of Arabic-language books, shoes, blankets, backpacks and sets of sports equipment, all of which have been distributed to Iraqi children by our troops. While our focus remains on Iraq, in recent months, OIC has extended its reach, sending shipments of school supplies to Afghanistan and the east African nation of Djibouti, where American troops are distributing them to children in need.
For more information contact Alexandra Hemmerly-Brown at: abrown9@elon.edu