A GRASSROOTS network aimed at equipping children with school essentials is growing across Scotland. Modelled on the Yes campaign, the volunteer-run Back to School Banks will collect and distribute uniforms and classroom basics like bags and pencils to youngsters across the country.

It is the kind of aid that would once have been collected in Scotland and distributed to pupils in developing nations such as Malawi.

But Sandra Douglas, who came up with the idea while campaigning for Kirsten Oswald MP in East Renfrewshire, says the growing network addresses “heartbreaking” need at home.

Douglas, an office administrator from Clarkston, told The National: “It should not be needed, but it is.

“Last Christmas I was helping my children to collect presents to be donated to children, and school uniforms were on the list – that was what these children were going to get for Christmas.

“They were aged five to 15 and that broke my heart. I kept thinking that there should be a way to do something about it.”

She added: “This is all about giving people self respect, self esteem, dignity – letting these children know it can get better. When you’re at rock bottom it is hard to get up.”

Douglas, 64, now runs the East Renfrewshire Back to School Bank from her spare room, collaborating with Deborah Shepherd, 39, who helps out families in Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire.

The pair are now working with people all over Scotland to set up localised services to aid families hurt by benefits cuts, unemployment and the rising cost of living.

They held their first donation drive last month and now, with just weeks to go until the start of the new school term, they have helped to establish nine further groups aiding communities across the country.

Back to School Banks will now operate from the Highlands, Inverness, Oban, Dundee, Stirling, Hamilton, Paisley and Inverclyde.

Co-ordinators raise funds and collect items locally, distributing packs to families referred to them by trusted sources including doctors, social workers and food banks.

Douglas said: “I don’t want this to be local, it needs to be national, but it doesn’t need me to do it.

“Every night I am online talking to someone who is interested in doing it. The decision was to allow people to run their own groups because they know what they need. The situation in Oban, for example, is different from the situation in Kirkintilloch.”

Donations are also taken through an Amazon wish-list and the organisers do not learn the identity of the recipients in an effort to avoid stigmatising them or preventing them from coming forward through embarrassment.

Shepherd, who works as the national officer to the Society of Radiographers, said: “As soon as the Facebook page went up, we got referrals.

“When Sandra suggested it to me, it was a no-brainer because of something that happened during the referendum campaign.

“I was at a supermarket in Cumbernauld at about 10pm in the cold and rain, and there was this wee boy wearing a sports jacket with sleeves halfway up his arms, and he was with a younger boy.

“He was trying to get money from people to take their trolleys back, so I gave him something and went to the car, and as I left I realised he had gone into the shop to get himself and the younger boy something to eat.

“They were sharing a sandwich and a bottle of juice. It was heartbreaking.”

She added: “It’s outrageous that we need to do this. It’s completely unbelievable that there are working families struggling like this in Scotland in 2015.

“These children are disadvantaged from the second they walk in the school doors. We will level the playing field for as many of them as possible.”