When holidays are over and it is time for parents to send their children back to school, the cost of purchasing educational supplies and uniforms can really stretch the family budget.

Each year in Thailand, Operation Blessing’s Back to School Project lifts this financial burden off poor families by providing children with all they need to return to school equipped for learning and looking their best.

On May 19th-23rd 2008, OB trucks heavy-laden with school supplies scaled steep mountain tracks through jungle and heavy rain. When the vehicles arrived at Naa Khrai and Maa O Jo villages, smiling young faces greeted them, waiting expectantly for what was to come.

Anchalee, a young Karen tribal girl from Maa O Jo Village excitedly said, “I am so happy that I am going to receive my first ever school bag and uniform!”

Operation Blessing gave 414 children, aged from 4 to 15 years old, new school bags, school uniforms, shoes, socks, belts, raincoats, school books, pencils, pens, erasers, rulers, and pencil cases.

The children, parents and OB staff, celebrated the occasion with songs, games, stories and lots of food and snacks.

For many of these tribal children this was the first school uniform they had ever received. Most of their parents only earn a small income farming rice or raising animals and cannot afford to buy uniforms or other school supplies.

Operation Blessing spends about twenty dollars per child to provide the “Back to School” needs free of charge. This amount is equivalent to about two-month’s wages for most of these poor villagers - a price too great for many to bear alone.

Lifting this financial burden brings relief and joy to these poor tribal parents and smiles to the faces of their children.

This year, the students from Naa Khrai and Maa O Jo village can look forward to going back to school wearing a smart new uniform, carrying a backpack full of quality educational supplies, and eager to make this school year the best one yet.

The Back to School Project, which began in the Year 2001, is an OB initiative to help improve the standard of living and education for Thailand’s poor and often disadvantaged tribal communities. To date, there have been 2,995 beneficiaries.