Are Your Children’s Books or Dictionaries Collecting Dust? Book Drives Help to Educate Children in Asia

A small team of 11 people and numerous volunteers around the world have made Bookbridge a successful social program that is measured not by the amount of profit, but by its impact on children and society in Asia.

The group has “built a bridge with books” since its founding in 2009, setting up 14 education centers in Mongolia and Cambodia, funneling donated books, maps and learning materials to children in rural areas, in order to facilitate their access to higher education.

In addition they have trained 300 teachers and are currently planning to open more education centers.

[CORRECTION: Bookbridge contacted us to say they no longer have a book collection point in the USA.]

The organization was set up by Dr. Carsten Rübsaamen, after he visited Mongolia in 2005 with a group of German scouts and realized there was a serious lack of learning materials, especially in English. The ability to speak a foreign language can greatly increase the children’s chance of becoming successful after their graduation.

The centers include a library with donated English-language books for children and adolescents. Books are collected in the UK, Switzerland and Germany and then shipped over in huge containers. Already, 150,000 books have been donated. The Bookbridge team found motivated educators to pass on their knowledge to the children in need. They also host a kids club that organizes movie nights in English.

The four libraries in Mongolia have been supplied with 56,000 books. To stock the education centers planned for 2012, Bookbridge is especially in need of atlases and encyclopedias. Please check out their website www.bookbridge.org and find out the nearest collection point to donate your books and help provide children in Mongolia and Cambodia access to an education.

Or, why not collect books from friends, families, schools and clubs? Learn how to donate books or collect books at their website. They even provide printable flyers. (CAUTION: Bookbridge still lists a US collection location, but told us they no longer have one in the America.)

“We are looking for used English books including children’s books,
juvenile literature, fiction and non-fiction. The more pictures a book has, the better. We are also looking for educational media in CD and DVD; also dictionaries, atlases and encyclopedias. “

Send collected books to the UK collection site below (See sites in Germany and Switzerland on the website), or donate money through their non-profit, with your donations becoming tax-deductible.

BOOKBRIDGE: Midpoint Park, Minworth, Birmingham B76 1BL

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Article editing by Geri Weis-Corbley