"We love that Harlequin has chosen to support So They Can! We are an Australian and New Zealand charity that seeks to empower poverty-stricken communities in Africa through education."

Aberdare Ranges Primary, So They Can’s school in Kenya, celebrates an amazing milestone this year – its eighth birthday! From humble beginnings, over 800 children currently attend our school from surrounding villages; villages that are often without electricity, running water and enough food.

So They Can’s Holding Hands’ Children’s Home for orphaned and vulnerable children cares for 120 of the kids who attend Aberdare Ranges Primary. Many were rescued from the local dumpsite competing with livestock to scavenge for food, and are now happy, healthy and much-loved by thier So They Can family.

So They Can also offers vital support to a number of primary schools in rural Tanzania, providing teacher mentors, resources and a schools ‘brain food’ program, ensuring the kids receive two hot meals a day, often the only food they will have, and fresh water.

Just $5 gives a child enough ‘brain food’ to learn and thrive at school for an entire month. The ‘brain food’ program tells a powerful story about the challenges some communities face in educating their children. Thank you to Penny and the Harlequin team for your generous financial donation and the gift of Harlequin Library bags, so the children can keep their school books dry and clean!

By educating our children, we give everyone hope.

Why not connect your school community with a school community on the other side of the world on Harmony Day (held in Australia on 21st March each year) and open little eyes to the inspiring story of So They Can and the communities we support in Kenya and Tanzania. Email harmonyday@sotheycan.org to receive your Harmony Day kit!

We’d love to welcome your school to the So They Can family. Jump online at sotheycan.orgto find out more.

Cassandra Treadwell, CEO

In 2018 Harlequin was proud to attend the So They Can Annual Dinner once again, where we had the opportunity to support the organisation in more ways than our humble donation of school supplies. In addition to requesting tickets to the gala, our CEO also committed to donating up to $1000 to their charity in the event's auctions.

We decided to involve our audience in a campaign on various social media channels to raise awareness to the cause. In our campaign our CEO pledged to donate $5 dollars to the So They Can organisation for every new follower that joined our journey on Instagram during that week, until we reached our intended support. We asked our community to engage with their network of friends and family by sharing our post and/or by tagging friends in it to help us "spread the Harley love"—the more reach the post received, the more we would potentially donate.

In every post we tagged our beloved So They Can so that their digital marketing channels get as much visibility as possible in the lead up to the event. Our aim was to increase visibility to social entrepreneurs like Cassandra and the incredible work they do around the globe providing education and support to those in disadvantaged circumstances. For this reason we are proud to feature them on our website and social media channels.

We could not have put it in better words and we completely align with Cassandra's values when she wrote in her letter: "By educating our children, we give everyone hope". We support So They Can for Cassandra's values, we support this cause for the children, we support them for a better tomorrow for all of us.