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: .

几个月之前我跟彦志遇见了图书馆计划的创始人托马斯斯蒂德（Thomas Stader）。 图书馆计划主要是给不发达地区的学校和孤儿院捐赠书本和盖建图书馆，斯蒂德创立这个计划的原因是他坚信，在不发达的国家，教育是走出贫困怪圈的关键因素。他认为教育就是改变。该计划通过与当地团体的合作，向他们提供书本并提升他们教育意识，手把手地给学校和孤儿院建立双语图书馆。

不久前，托马斯写了一封信给我，，我想在这里给大家讲以下信件的内容：

“当我们给中国的一间乡村小学改建起第一间图书馆的时候，参与计划的每一位都很兴奋。

新星小学的学生，从一年级到六年级，超过500人。其中三分之一的学生是来自民工家庭。民工在中国是指那些靠出卖劳动力为生的人，从架高速公路到建房盖屋，他们什么都干。他们居无定所，哪里有活干就到哪里，当一项工程完工了，他们就举家搬到下一个工作的地方。因为新星小学附近被当地政府规划为特别发展区，所以有一大批的民工家庭和他们的小孩涌到这里来。行政部门的财政支持没有增加的前提下，他们的到来给小学的经营带来的压力是可想而知的。”

“尽管承受着这样的额外的压力，新星小学还是可以经营下去，这全赖钟副校长的出色领导。我们暑假到那里参观的时候见到了钟副校长，他在校门口迎接我们。那时他一个人在学校做大扫除，为就要来的秋季开学做准备。”

“在视察期间，我们发现该图书馆设在了学校四楼一个简陋的房间里。即使看上去肮脏，但书本都保存得很好。在新的书架上，陈列着《中央政府》。他们收藏的书籍达到三千多本 。听起来这似乎是一个非常可观的数目，然而该馆中的书籍几乎都不适合小学生阅读。大部分书籍是适合高中生或大学生阅读，或者是在20世纪70年代发表的，其陈旧程度显而易见。适合1-3年级学生的儿童读物不超过50本。馆里没有任何舒适的家具可以让孩子们坐。”

“2007年9月25日，除了为1-3年级小学生增多了500本儿童读物，图书馆计划还提供了配有五彩缤纷家具的儿童式安全阅览区，使孩子们能够坐下来，舒适地看书。除此之外还有一整套的儿童百科全书给较年长的学习者使用。在家具和书籍准备好后，我们还为庆祝孩子们的新图书馆举行了聚会。二十位学生被挑选参加艺术活动，手工艺活动及游戏等。我们每个人都非常开心。”

“最重要的是，领导层确实看到了孩子们对新图书馆的愉悦之情。该小学的领导人员就作出安排，确保每一个班级都可以每星期一次使用图书馆。”

“毫无疑问，图书馆计划提高了学校的教育水平。”

如有疑问，请联系Thomas Stader先生：