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Rotary Books for Uganda
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CHALLENGING ILLITERACY ONE RECYCLED TEXTBOOK AT A TIME
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The armed conflict in Northern Uganda has created a human disaster as large as Darfur. Nearly three million people displaced. Half of the region’s schools destroyed. An entire generation growing up with no education. Now, however, there is hope.
With a cease-fire in place and a permanent peace agreement expected soon, the refugees are returning home to rebuild their lives for the first time in twenty years.
Because of an unusual partnership inspired by one very dedicated couple, many Ugandan children will have the textbooks they need for school when they reach home. Joyce, a microbiologist, and Ray Lockard, a horticulturist, worked for decades in developing nations like Malaysia, Yemen, Ghana, the Philippines and Liberia. During their careers, they experienced gut-wrenching poverty and illiteracy first-hand. Their experiences left them determined to help.
Retiring in Oregon, Joyce and Ray joined Beaverton Rotary in their new home. With over 32,000 clubs in 200 countries, Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world.
One key reason over two billion human beings cannot read is that they have no access to books. With Americans destroying over 50 million books a year, including many textbooks that have years of useful life remaining, the Lockard’s leapt into action. Rotary Books for Uganda is the result, a project that recycles books too dated for Oregon schools and colleges.
Beaverton School District and Bookbyte, a leading online retailer of used textbooks, were thrilled to join the project. The Beaverton School District donates obsolete textbooks to Rotary – foregoing payment for their recycle value. Beaverton Rotary, in turn, donates these books to Bookbyte so they may provide the final critical link. Bookbyte provides the textbook experts and warehousing facilities needed to collect, transport, evaluate and store books at no charge. In inspecting all of the School District’s obsolete books, Bookbyte ensures that the District receives payment for books that can be resold and that the remaining books are packed and palletized for shipment to Uganda’s book-hungry students through the Rotary Books for Uganda Project.
Joyce reports that she is “delighted and grateful to the Beaverton School District and to Bookbyte.com”. This unusual partnership, between a non-profit service organization, a public school district and an online retailer of textbooks, greatly expands a fantastic program that puts desperately needed textbooks directly into the hands of Ugandan youth eager to learn. It ensures that obsolete but still serviceable textbooks will continue to be used to educate many, many more children. Used college level textbooks that are not resalable in the US are also sent to Uganda. Finally, although the three partners can’t predict exactly how many books may ship this year, Joyce smiles when she reports “it’s quite possible the program could double in size, and if it does this will make me deliriously happy!”
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The Rotary Books For Uganda Project gratefully acknowledges the following friends who have helped make this program possible:
Beaverton School District
Blue Bird Transfer Inc. of Tigard, Oregon
Bookbyte.com
Brother’s Brother Foundation
Pacific University
Portland State University
Powell’s Books
The International Book Project
US State Department Funded Transportation Program
and
Partner Rotary Clubs Worldwide
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