More than 200 chil­dren from com­mu­ni­ties across Trinidad and To­ba­go re­ceived back­packs and school sup­plies through the Hum­ming­bird House Foun­da­tion’s (THHF) an­nu­al Back-to-School Book­bag and Sup­plies Dis­tri­b­u­tion ini­tia­tive.

The ini­tia­tive is aimed at help­ing fam­i­lies man­age some of the fi­nan­cial pres­sures as­so­ci­at­ed with the start of the new school term, in­clud­ing the cost of school­books, sta­tionery, uni­forms, shoes and oth­er ne­ces­si­ties.

Chil­dren from across T&T were nom­i­nat­ed to ben­e­fit from this year’s ini­tia­tive. Each child re­ceived a back­pack filled with es­sen­tial school sup­plies to help them pre­pare for the new aca­d­e­m­ic year.

How­ev­er, the Hum­ming­bird House Foun­da­tion sought to make the dis­tri­b­u­tion about more than pro­vid­ing school sup­plies. The chil­dren were al­so treat­ed to a day of ac­tiv­i­ties and self-care, in­clud­ing a pet­ting zoo, while boys and girls re­ceived free hair­cuts and hair braid­ing.

Found­ed in 2020, the Hum­ming­bird House Foun­da­tion be­gan when a group of women came to­geth­er with the be­lief that or­di­nary peo­ple could cre­ate mean­ing­ful change by work­ing to­geth­er.

Since then, the foun­da­tion has de­vel­oped ini­tia­tives aimed at sup­port­ing chil­dren, young peo­ple, women and vul­ner­a­ble mem­bers of com­mu­ni­ties.

For founder Alexan­dria Emi­ly Bachan, the an­nu­al back-to-school ini­tia­tive rep­re­sents more than the dis­tri­b­u­tion of back­packs and school sup­plies.

Bachan said the foun­da­tion’s work was cen­tred on giv­ing chil­dren hope and en­cour­ag­ing them to be­lieve in their abil­i­ty to achieve their goals.

“Every child de­serves the op­por­tu­ni­ty to walk in­to a class­room be­liev­ing that they can achieve some­thing great,” she said.

The foun­da­tion’s work is guid­ed by the mes­sage, “To­geth­er, We Can Make a Dif­fer­ence,” with Bachan en­cour­ag­ing in­di­vid­u­als, busi­ness­es, or­gan­i­sa­tions and mem­bers of com­mu­ni­ties to con­tribute to ini­tia­tives that can pos­i­tive­ly af­fect chil­dren and young peo­ple.

The foun­da­tion said that while a back­pack and school sup­plies may ap­pear to be sim­ple gifts, they can help pro­vide chil­dren with a sense of be­long­ing and a pos­i­tive start to the school year.

It al­so hopes the ini­tia­tive will ease some of the fi­nan­cial bur­den faced by fam­i­lies while re­mind­ing chil­dren that their com­mu­ni­ties care about their ed­u­ca­tion and fu­ture.

The Hum­ming­bird House Foun­da­tion said it in­tends to con­tin­ue de­vel­op­ing ini­tia­tives fo­cused on em­pow­er­ing chil­dren and young peo­ple and en­cour­ag­ing them to be­lieve in their po­ten­tial.

The an­nu­al back-to-school dis­tri­b­u­tion forms part of the foun­da­tion’s wider work to sup­port com­mu­ni­ties and cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for those in need.