Sophia’s Sock Puppets Reach Benin, Africa!
In 2012, when Sophia was 7 years old, she became involved with the distribution of Christmas hampers, in her neighborhood. She was greatly touched to see different families in need and wanted to do more to help. So, she began to make sock puppets to raise funds to help children who lived in poverty. She raised $150.00 but she didn’t know where to donate the money.
Through her Auntie Kathy and Uncle Yves, who lived in Montreal, Sophia became aware of Project Kaki. The goal of this project is to provide school uniforms to underprivileged children living in Benin, Southwest Africa.
In Benin, education is free, but children are required to wear a kaki-colored school uniform to attend school. It seemed unthinkable to Sophia that certain families could not afford the $15 (Canadian) per uniform, to ensure that their children could attend school. Sophia donated her $150.00 to Project Kaki, which paid for 8 school uniforms, and 3 new soccer balls. With the collaboration of her friends, Sophia continued to make more sock puppets to raise funds for Project Kaki, an initiative of Anayi in Benin. In addition to her parents, Lisa and Mike, Sophia received encouragement and support from her teacher, Yuklin Jagassar, as well as the students in her elementary school class, at St Maurice school in Winnipeg, Canada. Many students, friends, parents and teachers took the initiative and worked hard to send enough money to provide for 250 uniforms in various schools in Benin. The Anayi team serving in Benin visited numerous schools and met with the administration, to determine which children were most in need of a uniform. The fabric to make the uniforms was bought from local merchants and the seamstresses, who made the garments, were also residents of Benin. The local Anayi staff also carefully ensured the fair distribution of the uniforms to each student in every school.
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Sophia’s story shows us that a 7-year-old child can make a concrete difference to improve that quality of life of someone else in this world.
Today Sophia is an adult, but she is unlikely to ever forget this meaningful altruistic experience that she initiated as a young girl.