NARGIS LIBRARY RECOVERY PROJECT NEWSLETTER #8, OCTOBER 2009
Our fourth container of books ships from Seattle October 9, with Thrift Books donating 30,000 children’s, 10,000 trade hard/soft back NYT bestsellers, plus 5,000 reference and ‘how-to’ titles and 2,000 cookbooks, plus 3,000 academic texts donated by University of Washington Libraries. As noted in previous postings, 10-15% of these books are sold through charitable book fairs and Myanmar Book Centre stores in Yangon and Mandalay to raise funds for Burmese languages texts and study aids. These were distributed to 83 school libraries in the delta in 2009. By year’s end we will have dispatched 200,000 books to Yangon to distribute or sell at charitable book fairs, which have already raised 13 million kyats.
As we gear up for 2010, our initial goals are being refined by directors of the two NGOs working on this project—Nargis Library Recovery and Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation. Libraries are learning of our effort and stepping forward to seek specific help, such as expanding their facilities, improving their equipment, and training volunteers to staff their service desks. Last month I described the remarkable success of ICE-Youth Library; this month we will meet their leaders and visit a dozen libraries in Pyapon and Bogalay townships, some reachable only by boat.
Our second annual roundtable is October 31 where we will establish criteria for selecting libraries to help, and consider how to induce local libraries to more systematically improve collections and collaborate in rehabilitating damaged structures. Anecdotal reports of ‘books on wheels’ in several regions are heartening, I hope we can learn from local initiatives to use elsewhere, thereby strengthening the entire country’s library system.
This project is entirely funded by individuals thus far, although I continue to contact larger donors and stakeholders within Myanmar and abroad. While corporate book donations and transport have been vital to our success, we would enjoy no progress without cash donations of families. Most of our management costs are defrayed by volunteers, within Myanmar as well as in NRL, however expansion of our effort to meet the needs of more delta town and village libraries requires additional funding.
I am heartened by the spate of diplomatic exchanges the past couple months, from the highest levels on both sides, to proposal to send additional humanitarian aid to sustain INGOs already operating in Myanmar. Both EU governments and the US seem to be taking seriously the critique that Myanmar receives less per capita development and humanitarian assistance than any comparable country in the world. Assigning blame for this situation is not constructive at this time, but enhancing library programs is crucial to improving the lives of all Burmese. Bringing knowledge into local libraries is our passion; we cannot do it alone, please lend a hand. Consider joining the few who are making such a difference for so many.
Call 425-697-5414, or e-mail john@myanmarbookaid.org, or write me at 9911 220th St. SW, Edmonds, WA 98020.
John Badgley, Executive Director
Nargis Library Recovery
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