With our four kids and the start of school we have been in a flurry of household activity gathering supplies, getting ready for the new academic year.  My 8th grader and I agreed that the tattered backpack she has been using the past few years was in need of a replacement.   As we began to search for a new one, I received an e-mail from FEED Projects, about the backpack they now offer.  This is not your average backpack, but a backpack that gives back.  I  always like supporting the FEED Projects when I buy something that I will use daily, knowing that the cost of that item goes towards truly life saving national and international programs.  In the year 2000 the largest gathering of world leaders to date met for the Millennium Summit and adopted the Millennium Declaration committing to a global partnership to meet what they determined as The Millennium Development Goals with a deadline of 2015.

 

 

The Millennium villages  in Africa demonstrate the success of low cost investments where agriculture, education, health, infrastructure, gender equality and business development are all addressed in an integrated approach to lift the villages out of the cycle of extreme poverty. Community Health Care Workers are a critical piece to the plan, and as a result average community members are being trained to become part of the health care workforce in these villages.  They are each provided with a FEED Health Backpack, which are not only filled with medical supplies, but help to identify them as designated Community Health Care Workers.

 

 

 

 

This is where we come in:

“For each FEED Health Backpack sold, FEED will donate an identical backpack to a Community Health Worker (CHW) working in a Millennium Village in Africa. The FEED Health backpack will help to identify CHWs and establish their community presence as healthcare providers. It will also enable CHWs to better conduct their medical exams, as each backpack is packed with medical essentials.”- FEED Projects

I love the idea of purchasing a backpack that my daughter needs for school, which in turn delivers a FEED backpack filled with medical supplies that a health care worker needs in a Millennium Village.  By contributing to The Millennium Villages Project it feels like we are taking part in something really important and transformative, in our own small way. I ordered her the FEED backpack to use in her daily education at school, but my hope is that is serves a larger purpose.   Along with delivering critical medical supplies to others, I hope that in understanding its true purpose, it opens her global awareness and connectedness to help educate her on the world beyond as well. 

Photo Courtesy of The Millennium Villages Project