With a new school year starting two weeks away, parents of over 400 elementary school children will have one less expense to worry about, as #RebuildSXM and St. Maarten Development Fund (SMDF) will be providing school uniforms for the most vulnerable children throughout the St. Maarten’s primary schools. The project, which was initiated just four weeks ago, is an initiative of #RebuildSXM, a Netherlands-based foundation established after the passing of hurricane Irma. With its core team consisting of various St. Maarteners and persons with ties to St. Maarten.

From inception, #RebuildSXM dedicated its efforts to providing important materials and resources for St. Maarten’s most vulnerable. With a focus on the wellbeing of St. Maarten’s most vulnerable, the foundation made its first major donations of sports equipment to various schools and athletic programs throughout the community in March of this year. Now, the focus is on preparing children for the upcoming school year. With this goal to continue its support for St. Maarten’s youngsters, #RebuildSXM will be partnering with SMDF to provide school uniforms for those most in need. 

“The goal of this project is to take away some of the financial burden that many parents face each school year,” said #RebuildSXM Treasurer Cyriel Pfennings. “In providing these uniforms, we can directly assist parents with uniform costs and also try to bring back a sense of normalcy for the kids when they return to school,” he continued. Sharing the same opinion, SMDF Program and Development Manager Makhicia Brooks described school uniforms as being beneficial to creating a sense of equality amongst students in the classroom but also being a source of financial strain. “Purchasing school uniforms can be costly and difficult to manage for some parents in even the best of times, so we can only imagine how challenging it is right now,” said Brooks.

With their mission to provide for 400 children firmly in sight, the organizations have been working with local vendors to secure favorable pricing for the uniforms. “We have a fixed budget available for this project and we are trying to stretch it as far as it can go,” said #RebuildSXM Chairman John Sandiford. “Providing these uniforms is only possible because of the discounts offered by supportive and community-minded vendors such as Penny’s Department Store and 0-14 Kids,” explained Brooks.

Describing their next steps, the two organizations indicated that the uniforms will be presented to school officials who identified the children in need. “The intake of children for this project was done by the schools and we will be working with them to distribute to the identified children in the coming days,” said Brooks. Closing out, the #RebuildSXM and SMDF teams thanked all 17 participating elementary schools and stores for their partnership and collaboration.