School in a Bag provides bright red rucksacks full of essential resources that enable poor, orphan, vulnerable and disaster affected children worldwide to write, draw, colour, calculate, express themselves, eat, drink, wash and above all, learn.

This project is providing 350 SchoolBags, Lifestraws and tins of maize for children aged 7-14 years at the Isele, Kimande, Makuka and Izazi primary schools in the Iringa area with long- term partner organisation IRUDI, the Iringa Rural Development Initiative. SchoolBags are developed ‘in-country’ with the majority of the funds invested directly into the local economy. This project also pilots the inclusion of LifeStraws in the school bags, enabling children to access water which is 99.9% free of parasites and bacteria.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 68% of Tanzania’s population lives below the poverty line of $1.25 per day. Parents are unable to afford equipment for children to attend school. In order to learn anything, children are expected to simply remember what they have been taught with no ability to write anything down.

A typical SchoolBag contains: 12 pencils, 10 biro pens, 12 colouring pencils, a maths set, ruler, pencil case, 6 exercise books (line/ square/plain), a water bottle, a LunchBox and Spork and a hygiene pack comprising toothbrush, toothpaste, flannel, soap and washable facemask.

The project aims to: increase attendance at school due to having resources, water bottles and food containers; increase health and wellbeing from safe, clean water and accessing a meal at school; increase levels of educational attainment including an increase in children progressing from primary to secondary education; decrease drop-out rates of children from school.