Lightening the Back-to-School Load

Back-to-school costs are pushing many already-struggling families into spiralling debt. This is how your compassion and concern for people facing hardship is lifting a heavy load off the shoulders of parents like Claire this September…

Books, uniforms, lunches, ‘voluntary' contributions — the cost of sending even one child back to school is daunting. Claire and David work in hospitality. They have three children, one is starting secondary school. “We've absolutely no way of paying unless we go to a moneylender," says Claire.

This is the crushing reality for far too many families. “Parents are sick with worry about sending their children back to school and college,” says SVP volunteer, Treasa.

Inequality in education

The ever-growing costs of attending school puts higher education out of reach for many low-income families. How can it be right that only the well-off can afford to educate their children? Especially when this is the very route out of the poverty struggling families find themselves in.

“We’re just now helping two students we heard from,” says Treasa. “Both teenagers, both attending college, both homeless. One of them is living in her car because the cost of higher education is just unaffordable to her family.”

Thank you for believing that every child deserves an education. And for helping struggling parents like Claire and David through these tough times.