NARGIS LIBRARY RECOVERY NEWSLETTER #11 January
As I write this newsletter NLR’s fourth 40 foot, high cube container of books is being transferred into MBAPF’s Yangon warehouse, while our fifth container is loaded at Thrift Books’ Dallas, Texas warehouse. It will travel by rail to Port Seattle and ship mid-month: just routine actions; yet 50,000 books are in each container. Our project has attained a level of performance inconceivable at the outset, in September 2008, now we can reasonably project delivery of 300,000 books this year and again in 2011.
Goals for 2010
In Myanmar
1] Continue distributing books to the 150 libraries we supported in 2009 and as many more as feasible;
2] Rebuild, repair or expand at least five libraries to serve as demonstration projects, selected on the basis of local communities’ capacity to sustain library operations– salaries, maintenance and future book acquisitions—and encourage recovery by 2013 of at least a 100 of the 800 libraries destroyed by Cyclone Nargis;
3] Expand training programs for local librarians & volunteers organized by MBAPF directors at Yangon University and the American Center;
Elsewhere
4] Launch fundraising presentations by our Directors & advocates to civic, business and educational groups, tapping into as many networks of potential supporters as possible;
5] Mount our website with links to slide and video narratives of libraries and individuals already helped;
6] Submit major funding proposals to government agencies, foundations and corporate charitable groups interested in disaster relief and development programs.
Activities
Yesterday Chris Hughes appeared on C-Span. He’s Bill Gates at half-the-age, a preppie/Harvard alum and cutout of his model as a multi-millionaire with major stock options in the company he co-founded Facebook. His social networking method & technique is a lesson for Nargis Library Recovery–make friends by networking, Facebook style. On January 1 my son-in-law Sasha [Aleksander Babic] launched Nargis on Facebook. Visit it and comment.
Earlier in December, after our directors Delta tour, sessions with U.S. and Singapore mission chiefs, roundtable with MBAPF directors, and meeting with Ashin Dhammapiya in his monastery, I returned inspired to visit Washington D.C. Conversations there included AID’s Southern Asia administrator Cheryl Jennings, State Department’s Southeast Asia desk officers Steve Blake & Laura Scheibe; Seattle’s Congressman Jim McDermott, physician with enduring interests in South Asia, at early morning coffee [he is ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee under Chairman Charlie Rangel]. I had extended conversation over lunch with two veteran Senate staffers now working with the US-ASEAN Business Council–Laura Hudson and Frances Zwenig. Matt Daley, retired Assistant Secretary of State for Far East helped set up these meetings, as he did our U.S. Embassy sessions in Yangon.
On December 16 NLR directors held a teleconference with participants from Myanmar, Thailand, Texas, Missouri, Montana and Washington State! Thanks to our Treasurer’s considerable knowledge of The Network, we tapped into FreeConference.com and used 798 free minutes to set our 2010 goals!
Dr. Thant Thaw Kaung e-mailed us last week that MBAPF has committed $10,000 to assist ICE-Youth Library move to larger space and gain a three year lease to expand service to its 2,000 members. See prior postings for description of this remarkable student group. These funds came through a charity book fair in Mandalay where 10% of Thrift’s donated books sold for $23,000. After deducting $2000 for the cost of transport from Yangon, advertising and staff-time, $21,000 remained which enabled this commitment
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