Uniforms for Students (UFS) 2009: Final Report – May 6, 2009

The 2009 school year that was supposed to start in early March was delayed until early April. Even with that delay there are several schools in the country that were partially renovated and unfit for students to return to for classes.  Nonetheless, we were able to successfully continue our project to provide uniforms to students in need.  Even though public school is free in Panama, a student is required to wear a uniform to attend. Our goal is to help students attend and stay in school.

Each year we have increased the number of students that we help.   We have found the students and teachers to be very honest in their needs.  A total of 437 items were distributed. At this time we have some small amount of remaining inventory.   The cost per student was lower this year largely due a great sale we encountered on shoes; the fact that many students only needed parts of a uniform this year (i.e. 180 students helped with 437 items); and the possibility that some of items we provided last year are still in the system somewhere. 

The roads were sometimes a little rough. However, we loaded up the SUV and trekked to the schools; two to three times to each school before the distribution was completed.

We encountered kids that genuinely are happy to be able to be in school. Head masters and teachers genuinely care about their students; in most cases, they know where their students live and the family situation.   One school even has a project to raise chickens and sell eggs to raise money for the student needs and events.

We thank the sponsors/donors for their support.  Our major sponsor has, once again, been the Mah Jong group. We have a generous anonymous returning sponsor. Anna Liebig donated a quilt, a lot of work on its own, that we were able to raffle off for funds.  It is worth noting that we had one donor, Willie Fry, from London, Ontario, Canada, who read about our project on www.playacommunity.com and contacted Sharon and arranged to send money.  A detailed accounting report is provided to the sponsors. We thank those who helped with the shopping and distribution of the uniforms; namely – Deanna, Barbara, Clemencia, Eileen.  Nick, Ron, and Glen joined in the distribution in the final trips. We should mention that no volunteers have asked for, nor been paid, any expenses.

This is a worthwhile and rewarding project that we look forward to continuing next year
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Project Coordinators for the year 2009:  Sharon Rennie, Alana Berry, Mayra Davidson