Our Mission:
One Bag at a Time
To make sure every child starts the school year with the tools they need to learn — by providing backpacks and school supplies to underprivileged students.
Our Story
Justin Osei-Dwumoh grew up in the greater Toronto region and never stopped noticing what September looks like. Some kids arrive on day one with everything. Some arrive with their supplies in a plastic bag, or with nothing, and spend the first week hoping nobody looks too closely. The gap isn't about money in any large sense. It's about forty dollars landing in the wrong month.
In 2022 he started packing. A couple hundred bags that first year, out of Toronto, mostly by hand. Today Bags Without Barriers distributes thousands of backpacks a year — Toronto at the core, with students reached across Canada and in Brooklyn, New York.
Governance and accountability
Bags Without Barriers is a registered Canadian charity (no. 777075961RR0001) and an Ontario not-for-profit corporation. Our fiscal year runs October 1 to September 30.
Our board has adopted formal policies on gift acceptance, conflict of interest, and donation receipting. Financial oversight is provided by a fractional CFO reporting quarterly to the board.
Ready to Make a Difference?
Send us a quick message and let’s start changing lives together.