SIX hundred unfortunate children in Vanua Levu had a good reason to smile as they received free school packs from Save the Children Fiji yesterday.
SC Fiji chief executive officer Chandra Shekhar said out of the 300 families selected, two children were identified from each of the families to be recipients of their free school packs.
Mr Shekhar said they received more than 800 applications requesting assistance. He said SC Fiji was looking for more donors in order to cater for the extra 200 applications that were pending.
"Out of the children selected for the assistance, 150 secondary students and 450 primary students were selected," he said.
"Each bag consists of $75 worth of materials for secondary school students and $55 worth of learning materials for primary school students.
"About 2000 children from around the country will benefit from the effort which is the sole project of SC Fiji."
Mr Shekhar said the joint income of parents should be at $150 per week in order to have their children assisted.
Ranjit Kumar, 13, of Dogoloa outside Labasa, who will be going back to school as a Class Seven student this year, had a wide grin as he received his school pack yesterday. "I just want to thank these kind people for giving me a chance to go to school this year," he said.