one by one® story: Na’amat Canada Calgary
Many young students live in shelters with their mothers after escaping domestic violence, homelessness or both. When starting a new school, these children are often faced with additional concerns. Will they make friends? Will the other kids notice they don’t even have their own pencil? Will they have to carry their books in a grocery bag? Worries like these are put to rest when these children receive a backpack and water bottle giveaway. Stocked with school supplies, the backpacks help each child feel happy and confident on their first day. And having their own personal water bottle gives the kids an additional sense of ownership.
Giving kids invaluable self-esteem with water bottle giveaways 
Na’amat Canada Calgary is part of an international Jewish women’s organization that helps all women and children—regardless of religion—in Israel and Canada. Na’amat Canada Calgary helps sponsor a domestic violence shelter and counselling centres, legal-aid clinics, woman wellness and empowerment centres, day care centres and more in Israel.
One Canada program, School Supplies for Kids, provides water bottles, backpacks and other school supplies for underserved children. When a mother escapes a dangerous situation, she and her children often arrive at a shelter with just the clothes on their backs. There’s always a need for school supplies for the kids. Otherwise, they’d have to start their new school without anything—from rulers to pencils—to call their own.
That’s where the one by one® grant comes in. Thanks to the grant, Na’amat Canada Calgary was able to order water bottle giveaways that it included with the kids’ backpacks and school supplies.
“We started the water bottle giveaways during COVID because water fountains weren’t open, and we wanted kids to stay hydrated and have something extra to call their own. As far as the backpacks, we try to fill them with everything a child in any grade level would need. We also keep the items as similar as possible, so one child doesn’t feel they didn’t get something that another child received in their backpack. The water bottles and backpacks don’t have our name or logo on them, so when the child goes to school, the other kids can’t identify them as being from the shelter. We’re very conscious of that,” said Stephanie Sacks, president of Na’amat Canada Calgary.
The water bottles and backpacks can dramatically boost the kids’ self-esteem. Often when a child receives their gifts, they immediately take them to their bed and look at each item. For many, this is their first sense of ownership and normalcy. And for the rest of the school year, these kids are set up for success.
A note from Cheryl
It’s amazing to see what a confidence-booster water bottle giveaways can be. 4imprint is thrilled to play a part in helping Na’amat Canada Calgary make an unforgettable difference in kids’ lives. To find out more about the one by one® grant, visit onebyone.4imprint.ca.