Libraries For Kids International
According to a recent EPA report, 690,000 tons of books were deposited in landfills in 2018. UNESCO estimates that 320 million books are sent to landfills or recycling sites each year.
Heartbreaking.
That’s a lot of books.
2018 was a big year for Blufftonian Roy Austin. He spent five weeks on safari in East Africa. While there, he visited a local primary school and discovered a sad truth—it didn’t have a library.
Books are taken for granted in America, where even the most disadvantaged children can borrow them from schools and public libraries.
After returning home to Bluffton, SC, Roy couldn’t stop thinking about those children in schools without library books and little or no internet or electricity. Turns out, 20,000 schools in rural Kenya lacked libraries. Roy and his wife Sharron decided to do something about it.
Libraries for Kids International started with just a few board members but shared giant dreams.
Before accepting the invitation to join the board, I received an email that began, “Hi Tamela, imagine your life with no internet access and no books. If you want a school, you build it yourself. The government supplies a teacher and some textbooks and little else. But your children are eager to learn.”
Books, especially for children, are transformative, opening doors to new worlds and opportunities. Libraries for Kids International’s mission is to see libraries in every rural primary school in Africa so that every child has the tools they need for success.
Libraries for Kids has shipped over 1.1 million books to 9,200 schools in Kenya and Tanzania in the past five years.
Every year on World Book Day, Libraries for Kids hosts an exciting fundraiser. This year’s event, “A Night Under the African Stars,” will take place from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on April 26th at the Weezie Educational Pavilion in Okatie.
For tickets, visit www.libraries4kids.org. For more information, call Tamela Maxim at 843-683-4100.
Tamela Maxim is thrilled to write for the Bluffton Sun and Hilton Head Sun. She was previously the assistant publisher of Realtor Listings magazine, editor of Bluffton Breeze and Premier Lowcountry magazines, and occasional contributor to local newspapers and magazines. She plays the role of the assistant art instructor on the YouTube channel Art Posse, a local reality TV show that has just completed its 2nd season. www.artposseproductions.com She recently edited and published two books, Et Cetera Y’all, Volume 1 by Annelore Harrell, and From Jellybeans to a Nobel Prize Nomination by Arthur V. Martin, Ph.D.
