Books for the World Project
Our club partners with other Rotary Clubs to ship used textbooks to Uganda. Here is a recent update from project leader Joyce Lockard: Download a print-friendly pdf.
I am happy to send you a progress report on the Matching Grant (MG) for which you club/district generously approved donor funds.
FOUR 40 FT SHIPPING CONTAINERS CARRYING 80 TONS OF USED TEXTBOOKS arrived in war-torn northern Uganda in September 2009, our largest shipment ever. Nearly all of the books have now been distributed to dozens of schools and to the library of Gulu University by the Rotary Club of Gulu, our valued partner in the project.
The used K-12 textbooks that the Books for the World Project sends to Uganda and other poor countries are intended to be supplemental resources for teachers and library books for students rather than class textbooks, since the curricula in the recipient country and the US are not the same. But some schools in the northern region of Uganda are so book-poor that teachers lack enough books for preparing their lessons and many children seldom get to use a textbook and must share with many other children. Until the government of Uganda can provide all of the books that are needed, our used textbooks from Oregon will continue to be sought-after and valued school resources.
You may have wondered how the book project works. Here is a run-down on the way the latest shipment was handled and some of the difficulties that had to be overcome, especially by the Rotary Club of Gulu, our partner in the project.
One hundred sixty thousand lb of used textbooks were donated in July 2008 by two generous Oregon donors—BOOKBYTE, which is an on-line bookseller in Salem, and DON LACKEY BOOKS in Harrisburg. The Funded Transportation Program, a US government program that pays for the ocean freight for some of the humanitarian aid sent to poor countries by US non-profit organizations, paid for transportation of four 40 ft shipping containers carrying those donated books to Mombasa on the coast of Kenya. But the real destination was in Uganda, so we had raised funds from ten Rotary clubs to develop a Rotary Matching Grant to pay for trucking the books onward about nine hundred miles overland from Mombasa to Gulu in northern Uganda. Additional funds from the Matching Grant were sent to the Rotary Club of Gulu to pay for local expenses that included unloading the books, three months of rent for a storage and sorting place, and pay for six people to sort the books.
The books had to be unloaded by hand in Gulu because there was no loading dock or forklift. Emptying each one of the four shipping containers took about eight hours of work by 20-25 laborers. College textbooks were sent to the library of Gulu University. The sorting crew separated the approximately 100,000 K-12 books by grade level and then by subject and placed stamps in the front of each book that say “DONATED BY BEAVERTON AND GULU ROTARY CLUBS” and “NOT FOR SALE”, in order to discourage any attempts to sell the books. The books were packed into bags for distribution, as bags are cheaper than cartons. A local radio station announced that books were available and requests poured in! The Gulu Rotary Project Coordinator checked to confirm that the requests came from legitimate schools and that recipients could safely store books (when a school has no lockable closet or furniture, teachers must carry all the books home each night). School representatives who came to select books were asked to give some help with sorting prior to taking away the books. Gulu Rotary Club delivered to schools that were unable to pick up their books, some as much as 90 miles from Gulu.
WHAT’S NEXT? Another 42,000 lb of textbooks are ready to be shipped to Gulu from the warehouse of BLUE BIRDTRANSFER INC., the project’s long-time partner in Tigard. That shipment will include about two tons of used nursing textbooks that were donated by faculty of the School of Nursing of the Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) and about a ton of used medical textbooks from the Dept. of Medicine of OHSU. The nursing textbooks will form the basic collection for the library of a new School of Nursing that is being established by Gulu University this year, and the medical books will go into the medical library. Also, BOOKBYTE is ready to donate 100,000 lb of used college textbooks. We are looking for a recipient university and funds to pay for shipping. Can you help?
Joyce Lockard
Books for the World Project
What Is Needed and Not Needed
Used Books Needed in Uganda: Multiple copies are great!
- Used college textbooks in all disciplines that are taught in US colleges except those listed below. Science, nursing, medical, dental and engineering are especially wanted. Should be no more than about 10 years old except for books that never go out of date (if they would be in UO or OSU libraries, we want them).
- Used elementary and high school textbooks except those listed below.
- Vocational training books on carpentry, electrician training, plumbing, masonry, building and other construction, auto mechanics, electronics, appliance repair, agriculture, gardening, poultry etc.
- Dictionaries of any age if in good condition, encyclopedias and atlases preferably nor more than 10 yr old.
Books That Are Not Needed:
- No books with loose or missing pages, or with torn or broken bindings or badly worn. No really old books in any subject. In general, if books would not be in the UO or OSU libraries, we don’t want to send them, as they will take up space in which we could send more useful textbooks.
- No adult fiction. Some children’s fiction and non-fiction pleasure reading books can be sent, but limited numbers, because textbooks are needed more!
- No US or Oregon history or civics or geography.
- No computer books for software that is no longer in use in the US—eg no Windows 98. No old manuals for either hardware or software. We send few computer science books, as they are out of date quickly!
- No books on baseball or American football. Books on soccer, basketball, fitness, track and general athletics are wanted, especially soccer.
- No National Geographics or scientific or professional journals or magazines or loose papers.
- No books on religion EXCEPT basic references including bibles, Korans and other books that are the bases of world religions. Books comparing world religions are needed.
- Law books that are books of statutes or otherwise unlikely to be useful to Ugandan students of law.
- No IRS manuals, equipment manuals, fashion and beauty, herbal medicine. No junk!
Other Non-Book Items That Are Needed:
- Used library shelving, both metal and wood. Volunteers are available to disassemble and take it away.
- Manual typewriters in good working condition. If electric typewriters are donated, they will be traded in to a Beaverton typewriter dealer who will provide a good manual in exchange.
- Thousands of pens, pencils and boxes of crayons for distribution to schools.
Note: These items will be packed in the Blue Bird Transfer Inc. warehouse in Tigard, which generously donates space for collecting and packing. Address: Blue Bird Transfer, 7555 SW Tech Center Drive, off SW 72nd Ave., Tigard OR. Call 503-533-4190 or e-mail to rj.lockard@verizon.net for further information or to request pick-up if you can’t deliver. Locally, contact Shirley Pryor-Pyne at 360-642-2789.
THANKS FOR WHATEVER HELP YOU CAN PROVIDE!
…..update….June 2010
Thanks to Shirley Pryor-Pyne, Bob Hamilton and Bill Halstrum for heaving yet another big load of books headed for 3rd World Countries. Can we ever say enough good things about the Lockhards, who have designed and championed this project from day one?
