Some of my expat friends here belong to an organization called Send a Child to School (SACS), whose main program provides backpacks full of school supplies for underprivileged children throughout Argentina. On Thursday I was delighted to be part of a day of packing supplies in the backpacks.

The event was very well organized. We went through a line-up, picking up backpacks for specific children according to age and sex, and adding supplies that had been prepackaged by other volunteers the previous day. Although it was a hot, sweltering day and keeping cool was an impossible task, I enjoyed the process and it felt good to be helping kids.

SACS sent out a message afterwards telling us we had contributed to assembling 2,768 backpacks — that’s a lot of happy kids!

Here are a few pictures to give you a feel for what it was like. The map also shows the work SACS has been doing throughout the country. Thanks, as always, to Venetia for taking the photos as I always forget!