Turns out sending kids books here is “much” cheaper than I expected!!!! My friend Sarah just sent me 5 kids’ books and two magazines for me and the entire package was $19. If you take out the magazines I bet it would be less than half that!
The trick is to send small paperback picture books, they are very light.
As I’ve written about in past blogs, the students I work with are mostly barefoot and walk long distances to attend school, the classrooms are packed with as many as 100 students to a room, and, for all of their efforts to learn, the students' classrooms are without books. Can you imagine growing up with out a book to read? Not having books has large effects here- when students are in P7 they have to take an exam to leave primary school. Since that exam is in English and students learn English as a second language but often not very well, many fail that exam and can not go on to secondary school! Having English books to read throughout primary will help them prepare for the test in addition to discovering the joy of reading!
If you are in the Raleigh area than please contact my friend Jessica jessruhle@yahoo.com,who is putting together a shipment of children’s books or feel free to ship a few here. Thank you!
2 comments:
I'm jealous of Sarah's package - the one we sent from home (which was granted much heavier) cost over $150 to ship! Needless to say, I am VERY interested to see if you get it . . .
That is very interesting what you said about having to test in English and that's why a lot don't pass. I never thought of it like that. My friend and I are starting an organization there to help kids and a big part of that is books. Do you think it is cheaper to buy the kids books over there or to send them there from America?
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