So the 23 April is the day that is traditionally celebrated as Shakespeare’s Day… recognising the day he was born and the day that he died. In fact this day is International World Book Day on account of that great birthday. We live in a home full of books, our children are surrounded by books and a weekly visit to the library means that our children have fresh books and new ideas flowing past them all the time. This is not the same life experience for many children living in our city.
Previously I have blogged about our annual project to create a library for underprivileged children. This year we are supporting a whole primary school of children, that live in one of Cape Town’s most impoverished areas… where books are just not even an idea, let alone a way of life. I don’t know if you have ever used a book to get away from a difficult day… or to relax after a hard week. I know I do, I can escape into a book for hours, get completely lost and return a while later relaxed a ready to face the world again. Wouldn’t it be great if these children could have the same opportunity.
The school we are supporting has been rebuilt and after the previous buildings were proclaimed totally uninhabitable… they have a new school building, they even have bookshelves. The crucial ingredients though, and that would be books, are totally missing from the equation. That just goes to show, the powers that are in charge to not come from a culture of books or see the importance of reading because honestly what is the point of a library without books… And for so many children that is a lot of hopes and dreams that have been dashed away completely before they have even begun. I can’t even imagine a school full of eager little students, and no books to read.
The idea is that we gather books with the help of our readers, from all over the world, and we fully intend to fill those shelves with books. The books have been flowing into our home for weeks, and I know some books have gone directly to the school… but if you would still like to contribute books to our collection it is never too late to join in…
How Can You Help?
The children have recently moved to new school buildings… they even have a dedicated library space, all that’s missing is the books. So near and yet so far. Wouldn’t it be great of we could fill this shelves with great books that will inspire them and help them to fulfil their dreams.
Step 1: Select a Book or Books
- You can search through your books for gently used good quality books that your children have outgrown or no longer love.
- You can buy a book or two with your children and package them up.
- You can shop at Amazon and ship directly.
- And you can shop on-line, locally at Loot, and ship directly as well.
If you are shopping overseas and would like to buy local language books then click on the South African vendor to find books and they will deliver locally for you.
Step 2: Contact us.
Step 3: Let us Know All About the Books You Chose
We would love if you could photograph the books you are sending, or a list of the books that you ordered. If you have a blog and write about it then let us know and we will have a Progress Post each week. I will pop the photo’s you send into the blog post and if you do have a blog there will be a chance for you to link up as well…
Previous Posts in this Series:
- It’s Human Rights Day And We Need Your Help to Build a Library…
- We Need Your Help to Build a Library: Where in the World Can a Book Take You?
- International Book Giving Day… The Se7en Community Will Be Building Another Library…
Books Are Pouring In…
Huge thank the folk enough who are sharing our dream and shipping and shopping for books for the library, you have no idea just how much we appreciate your help… and can not thank you enough.
Libraries Our Readers Have Created in the Past
Living on the Southern tip of Africa, we are in a part of the world where this isn’t actually the standard protocol and many many children have no access to books, let alone the luxury of books in their own language or books about their own culture, not for school, not for fun and certainly not at bedtime. We can change that, book by book… I firmly believe that wherever you are, and whatever situation you are in, you can always escape into a book… but that is only if you have an opportunity to connect with a book. The project that we choose will have children that need to be able to escape the world around them, more than most of us.
- A rural village school in Lesotho.
- A Township School in Stanford.
- And a Community library in Eerste River.
- A Primary School Library in Manenburg.
We would like to thank Biblionef South Africa, for helping us to find a community in our area that needs a library, over the years they have provided us with unprecedented support in helping us to pursue our dream to provide books for children just like ours, who otherwise wouldn’t have access to books.
Disclosure: The Amazon and Loot links are affiliate links and our blog will earn a very small percentage of the book sales made there, we pledge to put any of our earnings from books for the school directly back into buying more books for them… this is their project and we don’t in any way want to gain financially from it.
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