See It: The Community being helped

My goal is to create the first library at Meru Peak School, Mount Meru, Tanzania. I will be teaching at the school for 2 months. The Meru Peak School and orphanage provides free education for children whose parents have died of HIV/AIDS. Headmaster Joseph Maganga believes education is the key to creating opportunities for the young people in Tanzania. Both he and his wife, also an educator, use a majority of their combined salaries to sustain Meru Peak School.

I can't imagine a childhood without books. Please help me aquire books and donations so that I may take books in both Swahili and English to Meru Peak. Swahili is the native language and English is mandated to be learned by 7th to 8th grades. Books in both languages will be most helpful for young readers.

The school currently has no books on hand and very few school supplies. I have donations of gently used books and am planning on buying books in Swahili.

Check out the school site:
merupeakschool.com
to learn more about how they are sustaining the school, but need help.

“There is no substitute for books in the life of a child.”
- May Ellen Chase

See It: The Community being helped

I am starting a book drive with friends of mine in the 7th grade at the Park School to supply books, magazines, comic books and DVD's for children at the Boston Medical Center in Massachusetts. The Boston Medical Center sees almost 75,000 kids every year, most from the inner city, and many without any books at home. They speak over 70 languages. Many of them don’t have any books at home. Whenever a kid visits Boston Medical, they try to give the child a book if one is available. I go to the Park School in Brookline, this is where I am going to have my drive.

Our goal is to collect 5,000 items annually.

Park School Website: http://parkschool.org/

Boston Medical Center: http://www.bmc.org/

*We are also looking for Gamecube Games

See It: The Community being helped

We are three sisters who created a non-profit organization designed to promote literacy. We donate books to teachers at underprivledged schools in the hope that we are putting more books into the hands of students.We have collected over 3,000 books and donated them to 5 schools. We are also creating our own website right now to make it easier for teachers to receive books for their classroom libraries.

See It: The Community being helped

We visit K-3rd grade classrooms in less fortunate neighborhoods and read a story to the children. Often we have two people read the story and a third acts it out. Next we talk about the public library, hand out a pamphlet about story times and show the kids are library cards. Next, we have new books spread out on a table and we let the kids come up and choose their very own book. We put bookplates in each book with the kid's name in it. They are very excited. For many , this is the first book for their home, often the first brand new book, and most often the first book of their very own. Kids pick favorites like Charlotte's Web or Curious George. It is great to see them so happy with books. Our goal is to spread the love of reading. So far, we have distributed over 4,000 new books. The key to keeping the program going is by continuing to have new books. We get these at a discount from a local bookstore and from donations from publishers. In addition, we are interested in getting more teens involved so that the program grows. It is very rewarding to visit the schools and give out books. We'd like to pass the program on to get more involved.