Earlier this month, JFS had the great pleasure of joining The Rashi School for their school-wide packing event for our Mobilize Boston for Syrian Refugees project with the Multifaith Alliance. Back in April, JFS was invited to Rashi to present about the Syrian refugee crisis and the lives of refugee children. Evidently moved by the presentation, Rashi students felt driven to contribute to this important cause that aligned closely with their core values.
In response to this desire to help, Rashi organized a collection drive to make backpacks for children just like them. While the students imagined many items that could help, they elected to collect notebooks, pencils, reading books and other school supplies, even including a toy for each child in every bag.
Following the collection, the students participated in a backpack packing event. JFS’ Jayne Lampert and Daniel Woodward were there to demonstrate how to put together a backpack.
Knowing the students receiving the backpacks were much like themselves, Rashi students designed cards of encouragement to include in each pack. To promote intercultural dialogue and connect across borders, they included messages in Arabic as well.
By the end of the day, the students had packed enough backpacks to help 100 Syrian children better access and enjoy their time in school. Our greatest appreciation to the students, their parents and Rashi’s amazing faculty and staff for promoting childhood education, creativity and literacy in Syrian refugee camps! It was truly beautiful seeing this project come to fruition!
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