Sowing the seeds
for a lifelong reading culture

Children living in tsunami-affected Patong, read books donated by The Asia Foundation. The handover ceremony of mostly primary- and secondary- level books took place at QSI Phuket International School. — THE ASIA FOUNDATION

Besides long-lasting emotional scars, physical damage caused the loss of homes and property, including schools. Damaged schools mean prolonged interruptions to children's education. At Baan Talay Nok School in Ranong province, for example, the giant waves, after wiping everything else away, left only the flagpole standing.

Reconstruction is underway, but school supplies, such as books and educational materials, are badly needed. Fortunately, assistance from both local and international communities have arrived to help try and get the students' school lives back to normal.

In April this year, Scholastic Canada, through collabouration with The Asia Foundation's Books for Asia programme and Books for Thailand Foundation, donated 89,000 English-language books to schools in the tsunami-hit regions of southern Thailand.

The books were shipped from Books for Asia's headquarters in Oakland, California, to Thailand, where Books for Thailand took over distribution responsibilities. The books will not only restock libraries that were destroyed by the tsunami, but they will also reach remote communities that previously did not have access to children's books, much less English-language materials.

"Stocking school and library shelves with books in tsunami-affected areas will provide an important sense of normalcy for these students, as well as inspire a lifelong interest in reading and learning," says Gavin Tritt, director of San Francisco-based Books for Asia.

Burin Kantabutra and Gretchen Kunze at the Books for Thailand's warehouse on Henri Dunant Road.

This donation alone, says Books for Thailand's vice chairman Burin Kantabutra, is the largest ever shipment that Books for Thailand has ever received. Every year, through a close partnership with Books for Asia programme, Books for Thailand donates about 80,000 books to schools and libraries all over the country.

"We try to aim for 70 percent distribution in the provinces and 30 percent in Bangkok, and more to primary and secondary levels," says Burin. Since Books for Thailand's establishment in 1996, however, the majority of distribution - 42 percent - has gone to the Central region and Bangkok. The rest is distributed to the East (seven percent), North (19 percent), Northeast (22 percent), and South (10 percent).

This, Burin adds, is due to the fact that the foundation has limited funding to carry out the actual distribution itself. As a result, school administrators and teachers will have to pay for their own travel expenses to Bangkok, in order to select the books they want. This method has proved beneficial to both schools and the foundation because as teachers come, they can select the subjects and level of difficulty that most suit their students' English competency level.

Starting this July, through the generosity of the Annika Linden Foundation, Books for Thailand will be able to offer a limited number of travel grants to library representatives to come to Bangkok and select books. While the grants cover the travel expenses as well as accommodation and meals, preference will be given to schools in distant provinces.

A growing demand

A collection of children's books donated by US book publisher McGraw-Hill.

Both the grants and Scholastic Canada's donation indicate a significant achievement by all participants, in terms of increasing access to English-language books and being responsive to a growing demand. Although Books for Thailand and The Asia Foundation would love to see the programme expanded to as many locations as possible, the recipients must satisfy a set of criteria.

"Most of the books in Thailand go to primary and secondary schools, but there are occasions where special collections are made for, say a hospital, a university faculty, or government office," says The Asia Foundation's Bangkok representative Gretchen Kunze. "The main requirement we have is that the person or the organisation receiving the books must be a non-profit organisation - government schools, hospitals, etc. - and also they must have a system to let people borrow the books and to keep track of them," she adds.

On each visit to the office of the Books for Thailand, located on Henri Dunant Road, representatives from schools or libraries must bring with them a letter of authorisation from their institution's head. Each recipient can check out two books per title, with no limit placed on the titles or subjects.

With an increasing demand, the average shelf life of a book is quite short. The quickest to go are science books - mainly physics, chemistry, and biology - says Books for Thailand's manager Amorn Saiyoi. Children's books, including pop-ups and picture books, are also popular. "We usually reserve the pop-ups for kindergartens and primary schools because they have little use for more difficult books," she says.

Ajarn Vannee Kerod from Ratchaborikanukroh School in Ratchaburi province, for example, is a regular visitor to Books for Thailand's warehouse. Her school's strengths are in its English and, soon, science programmes. On her visits to the warehouse, Ajarn Vannee usually takes storybooks and science textbooks.

The books, she says, have allowed her students to better understand difficult concepts in science. "Thai-language science textbooks don't have many pictures, so the students have a difficult time understanding the subject." The questions at the end of each chapter and the material contained on the multimedia CDs, she adds, are valuable sources of teaching.

A book's journey

About five times a year, books arrive at Books for Thailand's warehouse, and each shipment contains about 10,000 to 20,000 books. The selected book titles for each shipment are determined by an annual questionnaire completed by Books for Thailand. The details outline the number of books required in a range of categories from children's books and novels to textbooks.

Burin says that Books for Thailand completes the questionnaire based on past distributions and requests. By referring to the questionnaire, The Asia Foundation solicits books from publishers in the United States for more than 20 countries that are under its Books for Asia programme.

"Usually [the donated books] are print over-runs, so they are brand new," says Kunze. "Then, they come to our warehouse in Oakland and get sorted according to the requests of the various countries. Some books go to Afghanistan, some to China, some come here - depending on what the countries have requested."

Once the books arrive in Thailand, they come to Books for Thailand's warehouse and, again, are sorted and arranged for recipients to pick up. This whole logistics process requires a close collabouration by both sides. In Thailand, Kunze says, the relationship between The Asia Foundation and Books for Thailand has allowed the whole process to run smoothly for 10 years. The Asia Foundation began distributing books to Thailand in 1970.

"Books for Thailand takes unrestrictive title to the books, but when The Asia Foundation receives the books from the publishers, there is a condition that they will be for charitable use only," Burin explains. In order to assure the publishers that the donated books are used for a charitable purpose, he adds, The Asia Foundation's representatives sit on the advisory board of Books for Thailand. "So, The Asia Foundation is still largely involved all the way to the final recipients."

Over 40 million donated

Since 1954, the Books for Asia programme has donated more than 41 million new books to more than 50,000 institutions across Asia. During the same period, more than 2.5 million books have been donated to Thailand. With continuing support from local communities and international partners, the programme will be able to distribute even more books and reach more schools and libraries around the country. This continued expansion will assist schools, educators and concerned parties in developing lifelong reading habits among children. Moreover, with a never-ending source of new books every year, general education will improve perennially, not only in times of post-natural disaster relief efforts.

For more information on the programme, contact Books for Thailand at 02-652-3301, The Asia Foundation at 02-233-1644-7, or visit www.asiafoundation.org/Books/overview.html . For donation information, contact Burin Kantabutra at 02-229-2144.