A backpack: what a simple thing. I remember the first time I was exposed to the Sowers4Pastors backpack program - I was helping to load filled and ready-to-go backpacks into a minivan at Lighthouse Church in Maryland. I knew that they were specially packed for certain children by their sponsors, but that was about as much thought as I had given to them. After all, it’s just a backpack, right?
Fast forward three months. I found myself in a van bumping along the roads of rural Honduras on my way to distribute backpacks for the first time. As I looked out my window, I saw a variety of houses. Some were more strongly built: a shell made of mud bricks that were neatly stuccoed on the outside, concrete floors, actual windows or doors, a mostly intact roof, small enough to have only one room and a kitchen, and wired primitively for electricity.
Then there were the other houses: a partial frame of mud bricks supplemented by worn metal roofing, dirt floors, and very small with no windows or doors. I saw children walking to school in clean but used school uniforms that were usually either too small or too large on their small, thin frames. And on the same stretch of road, I saw other children who looked like they hadn’t bathed in weeks sitting in front of their houses wearing dusty, torn clothing, silently watching us drive by.
Something about what I was seeing didn’t sit well with me and being the problem solver that I am, I began thinking immediately about what could be done differently to change the scene I was witnessing. As I asked questions, it became clear. The main need in rural Honduras is education. Yes, well-rounded meals, better housing, clean water, medical services, bridges, churches etc. are important and much needed, but the way to truly eliminate the poverty of these areas is through educating the people.
Many in these areas don’t make it past the sixth grade, and as a result are unable to get steady jobs so they cannot afford the supplies to put their children through school. This sets the children up to repeat the cycle and they end up in the same situation as their parents.
So, when we arrived at the church and began to hand out backpacks, I no longer saw just a simple backpack full of random school supplies. I saw an opportunity for each one of these children to stay in school another year, and in doing so, take one more step toward changing their communities. It’s a huge goal, a long and difficult process, and a cycle that will take a couple generations to change, but it can be done and it begins with a backpack.
- posted by Kelsea
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