Hello everyone,
I am so proud of what The Library Project has accomplished over the past three months. We have far exceeded The Library Project's goals and expectations. There is so much to share - from an incredible list of elementary schools that have benefited from new libraries to how you can get involved in helping to improve the lives of China’s rural children - so let’s get started.
Over the past three months The Library Project created twenty libraries in rural elementary schools throughout China. More than thirty thousand books were donated with each school receiving a wide range of high quality children’s books including: history, science, short stories, fairy tales, reference books and comics. We also provided a full set of children’s encyclopedias for older students and pinyin language books for the kids beginning to learn to read. The Library Project also provided colorful child-safe tables and chairs, posters and a world globe to all the classrooms and library rooms.
These fabulous new libraries are located throughout China in the countrysides of Xi'an, Yanliang, Dalian, Lvshun, Jinan, and Changchun. At each site, The Library Project held book drives, which collected over twenty thousand quality second-hand books from local donors. We also purchased over ten thousand first-hand books from Xin Hua Books Stores at just $1 a book.
In addition to books and supplies, the school librarians received training on how to manage their new library. Since most rural elementary schools have never had a single book in their library for children to read, our Librarian Training Program gets them up to speed on day one.
The Library Project also provided a library to the Xi'an Child Treatment Centre working with abused children. This centre is the only one of its kind in Xi'an, and it was an honor to have the opportunity to help such an amazing group of people. In the coming months we will also be providing a library to a similar child treatment centre in Baoji, China.
Over the next three months we will be continuing our fundraising efforts in hope that we can provide libraries to over ten different regions of China. With that being said, I would like to introduce one of those regions to you in this letter: Lan Gao County.
Lan Gao County is located in the ShaanXi Province, in central China. It is very mountainous with a subtropical climate. Lan Gao consists of 17 towns and 198 villages. The population in Lan Gao is 170,000, and 152,000 people make their living through agriculture. Average annual income ranges from 1,963 RMB to 1,250 RMB ($268 to $170 US dollars). The Library Project will be providing libraries to fifty rural elementary schools in Lan Gao County in 2008. Over 35,000 Chinese language children’s books, hundreds of tables, chairs, and bookshelves will be distributed amongst the rural elementary schools in Lan Gao County.
We need you help.
There are three ways to get involved:
Help by spreading the word. You can forward this newsletter to your friends, family members and coworkers. Make a post on your MySpace page, blog to help raise awareness for The Library Project, or join our Facebook Group by clicking here. You can also host a small event at your home, work or at a local restaurant with a goal of raising enough money to provide fifty, two hundred or five hundred books for the children of a rural elementary school. If you need help organizing a fundraiser, please contact me anytime at tom@library-project.org. Thank you!
Help by volunteering. You can make a huge difference in the lives of countless children in the developing world by becoming a volunteer. There are so many different ways to volunteer: you can throw a wine tasting or dinner to introduce The Library Project to others, hang a poster above the water cooler at your office, or introduce us to your company’s HR Department.
Help by making a donation. Without money, we can't buy books. At a dollar a book, most of us can afford to buy 10, 20 or even 100 books. Make a donation and help bring the gift of education to countless children. Our libraries generally contain about 500 - 1000 books, thus every donated book (or dollar) helps!
Lastly, please check out some of our new products. We created 50 book, 100 book, 250 book and 500 book gift cards available at $1 a book. Each card also has a beautiful picture of a past library we have donated. The gift cards are a perfect gift idea. To check out our online store, please click here.
The Library Project is a non-profit organization. Your donation is 100% tax deductible. Thank you in advance for your kind support of our efforts.
Sincerely,
Thomas Stader
The Library Project
Founder |
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images? Please click here.
Thank you!
