Zakat Foundation’s Backpack Program Equips Students for Success

Chicago students pick up backpacks full of school supplies. Photo Sharif Murphy

This year, Ramadan fell right in the heart of back-to-school season, and as children in the Chicagoland area prepared to start another school year, Zakat Foundation held its 7th Annual Backpack Distribution program. Partnering with local police departments and Project Downtown, Zakat Foundation handed out more than 500 backpacks filled with school supplies to needy elementary school students in and around Chicago. Project Downtown Chicago organizer Mike Swies coordinated distribution in one neighborhood. “I want to send our most heartfelt thanks to Zakat Foundation for donating backpacks to the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago,” he said. “The children in this community are incredibly grateful and excited for the new school year.”

Through Zakat Foundation’s Backpack Program, generous donors have contributed tens of thousands of backpacks to poor schoolchildren worldwide. The program continues to expand in the United States, as more families struggle with basic necessities, leaving little room in their budget for school supplies. Started in 2001 under the slogan “To Kids, From Kids, With Love,” it promotes hands-on humanitarian work for all ages. Children are encouraged to donate backpacks that they have personally filled with school supplies. Donors also have the option of paying the cost of a backpack that is then stuffed at Zakat Foundation headquarters by young volunteers.

The Backpack Program is just one of Zakat Foundation’s education initiatives in the United States and abroad. Zakat Foundation believes that education is a human right through which communities become equipped to better their social and economic conditions. For more information call 1(888) ZAK-ATUS.

—Amira Murphy