The TASIS Community Supports African Charities

TASIS regularly donates used uniforms to the Italian charity Amici per Il Centrafrica. Introduced to TASIS by parent Paola Van den Brande, this charity supports central African communities through education, health care, and training projects. TASIS has sent more than 1,800 uniform pieces to them in the past three years. As part of this work, 500 TASIS sweatshirts were shipped to Bangui School, an African state school which has 1,200 students aged 6 – 14 years, and another shipment was made to a primary school in Ngouma. There are further shipments planned in 2021.

TASIS also has delivered more than 100 pieces of clothing, including polo shirts and lower school PE shirts, to the pre-school children at the Karibu Centre in Kenya. A second batch of Spirit Wear was sent for the staff. The Karibu Centre offers pre-school education, after-school programs, and job-readiness training for underprivileged families in Thika, Kenya. At a grassroots level, many children are struggling to get into state schools because they can’t speak English or Swahili, now a government requirement. To support the community, the Karibu Centre helps 100 young children learn both languages and gets them reading by aged six.

To support job readiness and help reduce the community’s high unemployment rate (70%), the Karibu Centre cultivates 30,000 aloe vera plants on a ten-acre plot of land. It employs parents to maintain these plants which are then used to make high-end soap products that are sold globally through their social enterprise, Organic Savanna. The sales of these products have helped sustain the Centre.

TASIS families also support a project organized by parent Shannon Banks that sends stockings filled with toys, basic hygiene products, and craft supplies to the pre-school children at the Karibu Centre during the holiday season.