Fill a Backpack -and Send a Child in Honduras to School- without even putting on a mask or leaving your home!

Filling a backpack for Sowers4Pastors just got easier than ever before. The term “virtual backpacks” has been bandied about, but that’s not entirely accurate. The very real backpacks containing necessary school supplies and hygiene items will be delivered to very real children in Western Honduras. It’s not the backpacks that are virtual, it’s the process of filling them! With just a few clicks on the Sowers4Pastors website, you can virtually fill a backpack without ever leaving your home.

Click here to Fill a Backpack Online! 

If you clicked on the handy-dandy link, you saw that you can choose from four options. Your $25 donation will allow you to virtually fill a backpack for a little boy, little girl, older boy, or older girl. Potentially changing a child’s entire future doesn’t get any easier than that! Your donation covers the cost of the school supplies (as required by the Honduran schools), hygiene items, and some fun items like a doll or soccer ball. (Sowers4Pastors covers the cost of the backpack and transportation.) Oh, and all of this do-goodery is also tax-deductible. 

Every year, Sowers4Pastors delivers backpacks to approximately 3500 children who are registered in the sponsorship programs. That number includes both sponsored and unsponsored children. Part of the $15 a month sponsorship fee promises that each sponsored child will receive a backpack whether or not the sponsor chooses to fill one specifically for their child. 

Additionally, backpacks are given to the children of pastors in the area. Backpacks are provided for the children registered at many of the feeding centers that aren’t part of the sponsorship program. And backpacks are given to children in the local communities without any of these other connections, simply because many of those children wouldn't be able to attend school otherwise. 

If you are a child sponsor, you continue to have the option to physically fill a backpack for your sponsored child. You can also just fill a large Ziplock bag with the extra “fun” items you want your child to receive and let someone with Sowers4Pastors or Manna put the items in a backpack along with school supplies. And remember that your sponsorship already means that your child will receive a backpack if you are unable to fill one. 

Each year, some generous people take on the project of packing backpacks for non-sponsored children and children who aren't in a sponsorship program. This year it has been much more difficult for individuals and groups to go out and purchase school supplies. With social distancing, people are less likely to run from store to store scooping up the back-to-school items. Virtually filling a backpack will take away the hassle of shopping in this era of Covid-19. You can still fill backpacks the old-fashioned way if you choose to, but this is going to be a great option for those who are unable to get to the store. You might say that it’s virtually painless!

If a sponsor wants to send a backpack to their sponsored child through this system on the website, there is a way to do that, too. To ensure that the backpack is allocated correctly, simply give the name and sponsorship number of your child in the section for notes on the payment page. 

Last year, Sowers4Pastors collected 8000 backpacks. If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Hopefully, Allen and his rented Penske truck will be traveling across the U.S. in a couple of months, collecting a multitude of backpacks. But no matter what happens, plans are in place to get as many backpacks as possible into the hands of Honduran children. 

Click here to Fill a Backpack Online! 

Would you like to know more about why the backpacks are needed in Honduras? Then here's a helpful video for you.

Sowers4Pastors - Backpack Distribution Impact 

 - posted by Christi