BRING MATERIAL

SPORT AND AFTER-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

We currently provide sport and after-school activities, and we plan to reopen our social center in the first trimester of 2025. Before traveling to São Tomé, please check your basement and feel free to bring any second-hand materials with you!

TEACHING MATERIALS

While pens and notebooks are easily available in São Tomé, it is quite hard to find teaching materials, books, and sports equipment. We welcome any universal teaching materials, such as drawing books, illustrated encyclopedias, puzzles, and board games (international and Chinese checkers, cards).

If you’re traveling from a French or English-speaking country, consider bringing comic books and illustrated encyclopedias, which can be complementary for language teaching.

If you’re from Portugal, we appreciate teaching books, novels, and comic books for young readers. We also look for technical books in areas such as mechanics, electricity, plumbing, carpentry, and cooking that are useful for our older beneficiaries.

SPORT EQUIPMENT

• Soccer: Soccer is the national sport, so we always need soccer shoes, leg protection, color jackets, balls, and whistles.
• Tennis: Balls are always in demand as they are easily lost! While we have rackets, child-sized rackets and other accessories are helpful.
• Capoeira: Capoeira rope is not available in São Tomé and must be imported from Europe. Each summer, we hold the ceremony; if you’re flying between May and July, ask us about it!
• Boxing: Thanks to Lucas, our first volunteer, we have collected gloves and pads. We need mouthguards, leg protection, and kicking pads—gloves are also very welcome.
• Chess: Thanks to Rachel, who collected and brought chess sets last year, we have enough sets. We would welcome chess clocks and books about chess theory.

APPRENTICESHIP

Once students graduate, we try to help them purchase the necessary equipment for their trade. Besides technical books, a financial donation in São Tomé can help buy basic tools such as trowels, levels, screwdriver sets, tape rolls, and buckets.

CLOTHES

Many families are single mothers with young children. Clothes for women and children are very welcome. See below some recent donations…

How to Bring the Donations to São Tomé?

There are three ways to get the donated equipment to us:

1. Bring it along when visiting: If you plan to travel to São Tomé and want to make a donation, please contact us in advance to discuss the best options for what you can bring. Make sure it fits in your suitcase.
2. Give it to a friend traveling to São Tomé: If you live in Portugal, you may have friends visiting São Tomé in the next few months. We recommend asking them to bring over the goods.
3. Shipment through a Portuguese company: We have contact with a shipping company in Portugal that can help us bring large packages. Please contact us in advance so we can confirm the delivery address in Portugal. Fortunately, the goods will be received within a few months.