Local nonprofit collects school supplies to help lower education gap

“In the areas and the communities we serve, we know the power of education. We know that the right teacher can really put a student on the right track to maximize their potential and keep the potential growing. We just want to make it as easy as possible for those teachers to do their jobs and for students to achieve the learning outcomes they want to achieve,” said Ahmed.

With students learning online this year, students can’t rely on items they used to be able to find in the classroom.

“We want students to learn in a virtual environment, we know we can’t re-create the same results but we want to try our very best.  We don’t want there to be a learning gap,” said Ahmed.

The team at ICNA Relief has been collecting staple items like notebooks, pens and paper and filling the backpacks with everything students would need to learn from home.

“These are items students used to be able to find in the classroom, now they will be able to find it at home,” said Ahmed.

Ahmed said they have been donating the backpacks to students in Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties. For the first time this year, families stayed in their cars when picking up their school supplies in order to social distance.

“Even in the middle of the pandemic, there’s been a huge response of people wanting to give,” said Ahmed
“It is incredible to see different walks of life, different faith-based community is coming together and just an outpouring response of love and warmth and a sense to help.

Article Courtesy: wusa9.com