Bringing school supplies to children in central america, are these items allowed on X

[CruisingGatorGirl]

A wonderful lady on our roll call, FloridaShari, is arranging a drop off for us to donate school supplies for some school children in Central America.

 

What a wonderful idea! I wish I would have thought about this earlier, I would have brought supplies on my past cruises! What a nice and thoughtful thing for her to set up for us.

 

I went to the dollar store and Target and got a bunch of supplies. Belize does not have access to cheap supplies like we do here in the US. As I was stressing over bringing a dozen pairs of shoes last night, I really started to think about the children in other countries and how fortunate I am to even be going on this cruise.

 

Will these items be ok for me to bring on Celebrity? I am bringing items like glue, crayons, markers, child scissors (will put them in checked luggage), notepads, etc.

 

I just want to make sure I will not have any issues.

 

*I want to make this a tradition, especially when I have children and we cruise with them. Thank you Shari for the amazing idea! Live to give! :D

[Iamthesea]

It's been many years ago that I first saw this subject come up. ;)

 

There was a group organizing a school drive in Jamaica. I cannot remember the exact problem, but it seems some passengers that had done this before were not allowed off the ship with boxes. The suggestion to the new folks going to Jamaica was to carry items in a large backpack and leave the ship like you were going to a beach outing or hike...do not get permission for what you were wanting to do.

 

I assume FloridaShari has been in contact with a school?

 

You may want to do a search on CC for this subject to see if the old post come up.

[KiwiFunCruiser]

It was OK in Vanuatu and surrounding Islands off the Pacific Pearl as we gave a small bag along with other pax when we visited the schools etc. If it were larger packs and boxes then it would be advisable to check with both Celebrity and shore customs.

[CruisingGatorGirl]

It's been many years ago that I first saw this subject come up. ;)

 

There was a group organizing a school drive in Jamaica. I cannot remember the exact problem, but it seems some passengers that had done this before were not allowed off the ship with boxes. The suggestion to the new folks going to Jamaica was to carry items in a large backpack and leave the ship like you were going to a beach outing or hike...do not get permission for what you were wanting to do.

 

I assume FloridaShari has been in contact with a school?

 

You may want to do a search on CC for this subject to see if the old post come up.

 

Wow, thank you for this info. I had no idea! I don't think she was planning on collecting boxes, just a bag worth of goodies.

 

I will pass this info on to her, thanks!

[LRene]

We didn't have any problem on an NCL cruise in Guatemala. But we each took backpacks off. One lady had huge Rubbermaid containers of clothes but she had cleared it with the cruise lines first. We had the best time giving that stuff away. My granddaughters learned not everyone is as fortunate as their little cell phone carrying and IPad toting selves.

[prim8keeper]

We took items like those on our cruise in 2011. We did a group roll call tour to some of the ruins in Costa Maya and the tour operator also collected school items like that for a local school. I think all together we had a few backpacks worth of stuff.

[cruisinggran]

In 2008 our roll call organized a drop off in the South Pacific. The organizer went through Celebrity who in turn donated sheets and towels. We had boxes enough for two tenders. Celebrity sent the ship photographers with us and we were met by the local government who toured us around to various schools. Each couple or person left their bag of school supplies at different schools. If I

remember right we had collected money donations as well.

It took quite a bit of organizing and I think it was in the works for over a year.

So I would have someone contact Celebrity. Times have changed since then.

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Thank you both! Good to know :) I hope we can make a few children smile

[cluso]

The key thing here is making sure the supplies are given to a responsible group to distribute--please do not give out anything to children on your own--it increases the chances of children learning to beg. There are many active agencies out there that have a great handle on how to distribute donations.

[cibumcupio]

If you're doing this on your own instead through a reputable agency, I don't think that's a good idea. Giving things away is not necessarily helping people. First of all, it can be really insulting to the local culture. Also, you don't know exactly what they need. You're giving them what YOU think they need, which unless you are very familiar with their society, needs, issues will probably not be helpful. Also like the last poster said, you can create unintended consequences such as teaching children to beg or wait for handouts, which they most likely will sell, etc.

 

It reminds me of a scene from The King and I, where the King of Siam decides to send President Lincoln 50 male elephants to help him in the war, because how you can win a war without elephants?

[CruisingGatorGirl]

I appreciate your concerns. Yes, she is going through an agency. We are not just walking off the ship and handing items out to the first person we see :) in fact, I won't even see them. Her person of contact is taking care of it.

 

I purposely didn't include too many details in this post. The point of this post was to make sure I can bring these items on x.

 

Thank you again everyone.