Thank you to all the members who donated books to the Rotary's Books for the World. Our Church filled four boxes with excellent books that can be used. To date, over 30,000 pounds of books have been collected by Rotary Clubs.
The South African Rotarians are trying to help not only the schools in South Africa but to assist areas of great need in Southern and Eastern Africa. The Books for the World Project has distributed books to qualified institutions for over a decade now. More than 6 million books have been distributed.
Why is there such a demand for books? The governments of Southern Africa can not yet underwrite the costs of all the books needed for the rapidly growing public and private school systems. Many countries in Africa do not offer public education to all their youth. Poverty rules in these countries. Without educating their youth, they will not be able to grow a work force that can feed their people and poverty will continue to rule. Where poverty rules hate also rules. The Rotary Clubs in the USA and South Africa are addressing the needs of the impoverished schools and libraries for books and other educational materials which assist both our literacy and peace initiatives. Imagine trying to teach without any books for yourself or your students. Rotary District 9300 personnel have actually been asked to cut books in half so that two students could have something to read. Rotary's response has been to supply a complete book to every child.
Thanks to First Baptist Church members for their generous donations.