中文
A few months ago, Yanzhi and I met Thomas Stader, the man who created The Library Project. His project donates books and libraries to underprivileged schools and orphanages in the developing world. Stader created this project because he believes education is the key motivator to breaking the cycle of poverty that exists in the developing world. For him, education is change. The Library Project accomplishes its work by getting the local community involved through book drives and awareness raising, establishing bi-lingual libraries, and partnering with local orphanages and schools.
I recently received a note from Thomas that he has built a new library, and I’d like to share what he sent to us.

“Everyone at The Library Project are very excited to announce that we have provided our first library to a countryside elementary school in China.
“There are over 500 students, grades 1-6 that attend the Xin Xing Elementary School. One third of the students that attend Xin Xing Elementary School are worker children. Worker people are people that do manual labor in China. Their jobs can be anything from building highways to building apartment blocks. They tend to be migratory, going where the work is, and once the work is finished they pick their family up and go again where the work is. Because the area around the Xin Xing Elementary School was declared a Special Development Zone by the Central Government, there has been an influx of Worker Families and their children. As you can imagine, this puts an added strain on the school budget that the administration must balance at the Xin Xing Elementary School.
“Even with this added strain, the Xin Xing Elementary School has an incredible school administration with the Vice Principle named Mr. Zhong being a key player. We met Mr. Zhong one day during the Summer Break when we showed up unannounced and he welcomed us at the gate. He was alone, cleaning the school in preparation for the approaching Fall Semester.

“During our Pre Assessment we found the school library located in a dirty room on the fourth floor of the school. Even though it was dirty, the books were all very well kept, in new book shelves the Central Government had just provided. Their collection of books numbered 3,000. This sounds like a very impressive number, but the books they had in the library were almost completely inappropriate for the children attending the elementary school. Most books were written for High School or University students, or were published in the 1970s and were showing their age. There were no more than 50 children’s books for grades 1-3. The library room also lacked any comfortable furniture for the children sit on.
“On September 25, 2007, The Library Project provided 500 children’s books for grades 1-3, and also a child safe reading area with comfortable and colorful furniture for the children to be able to sit down and read a book. We also provided a full set of children’s encyclopedias for the older learners. After the furniture and books were setup, we held a party to celebrate the children’s new library. Twenty “star” students were chosen to participate in arts, crafts and games. Everyone had a great time.
“Most importantly, the administration really saw how much the children enjoyed their new library. The Xin Xing Elementary School administration made a plan to make sure every class has an opportunity to use the library once a week.

“Without a doubt The Library Project has improved the level of education that the school provides to its students.”
If you have any questions, please contact Thomas Stader at: [*tom@library-project.org *].
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