GLOBAL
MISSIONS

Our CDGM team handed out seventy-six (76) backpacks at the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Los Angeles – Nickerson Gardens Clubhouse. The remaining twenty-four (24) backpacks donated by our congregation will be given to the kids in our Children’s Ministry and children attending our Family Reunion picnic on 8/19 who need one.

The Boys & Girls Club, located in the heart of Watts in a gang-infested Housing Project called Nickerson Gardens, is designed to provide low cost housing to families. The Backpack giveaway made a huge difference in the lives of the children who reside in Nickerson Gardens because most of the parents and grandparents cannot afford to buy the school supplies their children would need to excel in school. With CDGM providing backpacks it gives the children a chance to do better in school and feel good about themselves, which in turn can change their mindset to a more positive outlook in an area that seems desolate.

The event was held in an area infested with a lot of notorious rival gangs and consist of 2,054 apartments. The household income for families trying to make it is approximately $20,000 or less a year, which is a very low amount to live on in Los Angeles County. The percentage that residents will get a four-year degree is only 2.9% and the percentage for residents to get a high school diploma is even lower. Every opportunity for the children in this community to be exposed to positive experiences like the backpack give away the better it will be for them to feel better about themselves and want to do well in school.

A mother signed up her nine (9) children to receive a backpack. On the day of our giveaway, she went into labor and was in the hospital delivering her tenth child. Five (5) of the nine (9) children who picked up backpacks were walked over by their older sibling. This mother would not have been able to provide backpacks or school supplies for her children.