Classroom Kit ($500)

Disasters and conflict interrupt every aspect of communities, but when schools close, children's lives are put on hold indefinitely. Often, schools are among the hardest-hit places, suffering physical damage and losing learning materials. Every day that classrooms remain empty is a day of learning forever lost.

Why Help Is Needed

The effects of disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Sichuan earthquake are felt in every part of a community. Schools are among the biggest casualties. Damage to buildings and the loss of educational materials can destroy the learning potential of an entire community.

Mercy Corps In Action

Mercy Corps delivers much-needed supplies to affected schools. By providing teachers with the materials they need — including whiteboards, markers, notebooks and calculators — we help get students back into classrooms so they can resume valuable learning and normal routines as soon as possible.

Elsie's Story

Elsie Reyes is committed to education — very committed. Every weekday, the young teacher walks more than an hour each way over rough, hilly roads to get to her classroom. She has to leave her home in the town of Santa Elena, Honduras, before dawn to reach the school in tiny Los Pinos before her students arrive. Although it's a difficult path at times, Reyes is glad to travel it.

Mercy Corps, working alongside its Honduran partner, Project Global Village, constructed the school and hired Reyes as the village's first full-time teacher. About twenty students attend classes each weekday. Reyes teaches grades 1 to 3 as well as a "preparatory" class, similar to kindergarten. She covers subjects like mathematics, science, social studies, and Spanish. The classroom is brightly decorated with maps, charts and the fanciful drawings and other creations of young students. It's obvious from watching the smiling faces of the children that they are having fun while learning.

At the present time, there aren't any secondary schools in the area — the closest one is well over an hour away by car. However, villages in the area get secondary school education over local radio stations, through a government program sponsored by organizations including Mercy Corps.

Mercy Corps recently finished and furnished a small house in the village for Reyes. "It will be good to be near the school and village, so that I can spend more time with the children and maybe even teach more classes," Reyes enthused. Even though she'll be closer to her school, it's clear that Elsie Reyes will continue to go the extra mile for her students.

Classroom Kit ($500)
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Purchase of a Mercy Kit is a symbolic gift that supports Mercy Corps' worldwide programs to help children and families in need. The Breastfeeding Kit, Climate Change Kit, Fuel-Efficient Stove Kit, Cricket Farm Kit, Send an Orphan to School Kit, Plant a Tree Kit, Play to Heal Kit and Uganda Farm Kit supports those specific project funds. Proceeds from the sale of other Mercy Kits will be used where most needed.