Saturday, May 12, 2012

Books, books, books...

Seeing as I spend a large part of my PC life reading, it seems only fitting that one of my first big projects at site is starting an English library in Tsarasambo.

With a group of 18 volunteers in Madagascar, we're bringing 22,000 English books to Madagascar, and starting 18 libraries throughout the country. And Tsarasambo is going to have its very own English library with over 1000 books...which is a huge increase from the 0 English books we currently have. Interestingly, an NGO came and built a library at my site a few years ago...but there are no books in it. Maybe they forgot that small detail?

But just about every day I have people coming to my house to ask if I have any English books or magazines they can have...and I usually have to turn them down. But not for long. Although I live in a really rural village, its amazing to see how many people are trying to learn English. Its seen as a gateway to better work opportunities, and kids, teens and adults are always approaching me to teach English! But its hard learning a new language with no books or people to practice with...so this library is a great opportunity for my community, its schools and the motivated people trying to learn English.

But although the books are being provided by the American organization Books for Africa (booksforafrica.org), the volunteers and our communities have to cover the costs of transportation...which adds up pretty quickly since Madagascar is pretty far away....so now I'm going to make a shameless plug for your help.

We really could use your support in helping to fund this project to get our libraries up and running.

To read more about our project and learn how to donate you can follow this link:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=684-132

Sorry again to beg for money (and I'm extra sorry if I already emailed you about this)...but this really is a great cause, and even the tiniest donation will make a big difference all through Madagascar!

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