Saturday Spot: Thank You All… Our Library is Growing Book by Book…

It is time for an update on the library we are building, with our readers, book by book…

Here’s the back story: On the 14 of February was International Book Giving Day and we launched a challenge to our readers to raise a library book by book for a small township school. Last week we posted an update for you as well as a list of Book Giving Projects from all over the world… Last time we reported back, the school had allocated a room for their library and some books had started to arrive…

Well, there is great excitement in our house… We have heard from the school in Stanfordand your books are starting to arrive… packages by courier, packages at the post office… packages every single day. This project made it into the local newspaper “The Stanford River Talk” and a number of locals have collected books to donate… Not to mention we have dozens of books piling up in boxes around our home.

Their is a surprise element to receiving books from all over the world, in that a number of the books arrive anonymously!!! Imagine that… gifts descending and no-one to thank… so here is a letter for our readers from the children and the teachers… and don’t you love the “Thank you photograph!!!”

Dear Book Donors

Books, wonderful books and more wonderful books!

When the popular blog site, Se7en, contacted Food 4 Thought, letting us know that we had been chosen as the recipients of their World Book day drive, we really had no idea what to expect. The teachers and children of Funimfundo Pre School are overwhelmed by the enormous amount of books they have received to date – what a treat!

On behalf of the Food 4 Thought committee, the teachers and children of Funimfundo Pre School we record our sincere gratitude to you for the book donation. Headmistress, Nonkosinathi Apleni, was really thrilled to receive this wonderful book, which she has already read to the children.
A volunteer group will be visiting our school next month to paint and hang shelves in the room we have earmarked as our library room. This library room will also be available to older children and members of the Die Kop Informal Settlement.

We thank you very much indeed for helping make our library room a reality and look forward to meeting you one day – we would love to show you our lovely school and introduce you to our demonstrative children – visiting Funimfundo is a feel good moment which we would love to share with you.
May you stay as kindly as you are!

Warmest regards

There is Still Time to Help, If You Would Like too?

Step 1: Select a Book or Books…

• You can search through your books for gently used 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 on-line at Amazon or locally at Kalahari and ship directly.
• If you would like to buy a Xhosa (local language) book, then here is a link to help you.

Step 2: Contact us. You will need to contact us for the shipping address to send the books you have chosen.

Step 3: Let us Know All About the Books You Chose: We would love to post a picture of the books you have sent, if you have a photograph that’s fabulous but if you don’t then just send us the titles and we will find photographs for you!!!

Thank-you so much to all our readers, who have jumped in to help so far!!! We are so excited about this project you just can’t believe it!!!

Here is a quick overview of the Project:

1. Post #1: World Book Giving Day – We Need Your Help To Build Another Library…
2. Post #2: International World Book Giving Day – A Progress Report.
3. Post #3: Se7en + 1 Are Really Building a Library for Lesotho.

We are hoping to visit the school in the next week, and deliver a couple of boxes of books and we will bring you an update and more photographs then…