NARGIS LIBRARY RECOVERY– NEWSLETTER #15–MAY 2010
Cyclone Nargis hit two years ago this week. The issue came up at our quarterly board meeting, can we finally start rebuilding libraries, especially since we’ve found villages where only $3000 to $3500 will do the job? Already books are piling up in our Yangon warehouse, and many more will be shipped this year. And with the monsoon breaking this month, any book worth reading needs protection from the rains. So why hesitate, get on with the promise from the beginning of our project; get those libraries rebuilt!
Our problem is essentially financial. We find ourselves much more successful at raising and shipping books then in raising construction funds. As one board member pointedly asked during our teleconference last week, “Why not focus on what we do well and forget other activities, just keep the books flowing!” He has a point; if we dedicate ourselves to supply the entire country with English language books, we would be set to go; however our original mission is to help delta libraries recover, not just stock books [both English and Myanmar languages] countrywide.
While our two organizations—NLR and MBAPF—raised over $80,000 in 2009, we have no guarantee of that much success this year; moreover, our shipping costs will double after June as the American President Lines’ six free container berths will be exhausted in June. What to do? Our several proposals for public funding have been rejected or postponed for consideration, and no deep pockets angel has stepped forward to pick up the tab. With some envy I read of Gregg Mortensen’s early success in his school rebuilding project, Three Cups of Tea. He tapped a Seattle-area dot-com millionaire captivated by his passion for helping Pakistan’s tribal children get proper schooling. His work has gained traction and his schools are spreading like weeds in distant Pakistan and Afghanistan provinces—with no U.S. government aid. Meanwhile, we sent books to more libraries than Mortensen has built schools, and in 2010 we should double the 150 assisted last year, but our goal is far from fulfilled.
Our success is palpable when one visits libraries where our books dominate the shelves; but our challenge is even greater when one visits villages where children and their parents only hope for books if we can get their libraries rebuilt to protect the books.
A big gain for us this past month was Myanmar World Vision’s decision to associate with MBAPF to provide staff for book distribution to their dozens of Early Child Care Development Centres in Bogalay Township. They have helped reconstruct primary schools in these villages, so our books can be sheltered there until libraries can be rebuilt. Because adults also use their libraries, they become more useful when separately housed as in community-centered Andrew Carnegie libraries.
Our Board’s decision is to operate within our budget, which can support no library construction unless one of our outstanding proposals is approved. By year’s end we will have another 200,000 books added to the 120,000 distributed in 2009, plus at least 30,000 Myanmar language texts in school libraries. But what about those desperate villages with no books, nor any promise in the future? The benefit is enormous if we can help them rebuild, the cost is small considering what is to be gained. We welcome help from any quarter. Contact us by e-mail at john@nargislibrary.org, or telephone in the U.S. at 425-697-5414.
MBAPF model library
Bogalay Township kids need our books now
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