The non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tion (NGO) Is There Not A Cause (ITNAC) says it has no­ticed an in­crease in peo­ple ask­ing for as­sis­tance to buy sup­plies for their chil­dren to re­turn to school.

Founder Avonelle Hec­tor-Joseph said even though school re­opened a week ago there were still many peo­ple in need, which she de­scribed as “very alarm­ing.”

“Many par­ents have made ef­forts and still have come up short of fill­ing the ba­sic re­quire­ments ... They need as­sis­tance to give their chil­dren a fight­ing chance,” she ex­pressed.

Be­fore the new aca­d­e­m­ic year be­gan, book­store own­ers re­port­ed an in­crease in shoplift­ing as adults were seen steal­ing text­books and oth­er school sup­plies.

Guardian Me­dia even spoke with a 33-year-old moth­er of two who was ar­rest­ed and ap­peared in court for steal­ing school books. She apol­o­gised for her be­hav­iour but lament­ed the high cost of school items.

Since 2003, ITNAC has been as­sist­ing par­ents and stu­dents in pur­chas­ing back-to-school items, and through its do­na­tion dri­ve Soul 4 Sole has been ask­ing peo­ple to do­nate to this cause.

“You would not be­lieve the amount of calls ... we need you to sup­port us, help us to get school shoes so our chil­dren can re­port to school,” Hec­tor-Joseph plead­ed.

She al­so ap­pealed to or­gan­is­ers whose back-to-school dri­ves were wrap­ping up or have end­ed to con­sid­er do­nat­ing any re­main­ing items to ITNAC as she urged mem­bers of the pub­lic to make a do­na­tion.

The char­i­ta­ble or­gan­i­sa­tion can be con­tact­ed at 715-6221/760-6308 or itnac.mis­sions@gmail.com.

Any­one will­ing to do­nate fi­nan­cial­ly can make a de­posit to Re­pub­lic Bank Lim­it­ed Chequing Ac­count 51000944680.