Saving Kids – One Book at a Time
Compared to the shiny new schools in urban centres like Shanghai, rural education in China is subpar. Villages lack the resources to give their younger population the tools they need to break out of the cycle of poverty. In 2006, Tom Stader witnessed this social and economic imbalance in rural China while travelling through the region. Proving that one person can make a difference, he founded The Library Project and took on the monumental task of bridging the education gap between rich and poor using good old-fashioned books.
In a day and age dominated by computers and the Internet, libraries can seem passé, but not in villages around China where books are scarce. Founded in 2006, The Library Project donates books and libraries to schools and orphanages in China and Vietnam in an attempt to bring change to rural communities. Over the past four years, the non-profit has built an astounding 500 libraries and has changed the lives of more than 100,000 students.
When it first started, The Library Project received financial donations from international corporations and foreign philanthropists, but gradually the donor base has shifted local, with companies like Roewei, Adata and Wan Yuan Real Estate Urban Development getting involved.
“We establish relationships with our donors, thus allowing us to find out the province they would like to support,” Stader says. “They enjoy being active contributors.”
But fundraising is only half the battle; donating the actual library takes up a significant portion of The Library Project’s time and resources. Once a school or orphanage has been determined as the recipient of a new library, Stader and his team focus their efforts on getting the building completed – a task that can take up to six months.
The Library Project involves the local community directly, a technique they believe creates more lasting change. The donors might not be located in the actual province they’re working in, but the recipients of the library are, and working locally gets the job done much faster.
First, the local government must be contacted in order to select the school that will receive the library. “To work directly with the local governments, we must be invited into the region,” Stader says. “Thankfully, we’ve never been turned away. Every region has been very active in the donation of each library.”
The project manager then organises the manpower for the work, calling the donors and asking them if they would like to volunteer. She also recruits local volunteers to help out. Some schools and orphanages that The Library Project works with already have infrastructure in place, while others need help building basic furniture and shelving. The materials are purchased by The Library Project’s logistics and purchase manager, then shipped to the elementary schools.
The communal achievement even extends to the children. When the materials arrive, they are in charge of carrying the books and building the tables and chairs, thus familiarising themselves with their future library and giving them a sense of ownership. As a result, on the official donation day the children truly feel that the library is theirs.
As Stader explains, for many of the schools that they work with, the library that the team donates is the first that the school has ever had. Therefore in addition to donating the library, The Library Project team also trains the new librarians.
“It’s a 15 minute crash course that covers everything from organisation to checking-out books,” he says. “We basically show them how to handle 500 to 1,000 books.”
To date, The Library Project has successfully set up libraries in 21 provinces within mainland China, from Anhui to Yunnan – thanks to Stader’s hard work, determination and single-minded focus on his goal of bringing education to rural China.
“I’ve had to learn when to say ‘yes’ and when to say ‘no’. Our team doesn’t build schools or sports arenas. We don’t create environmental programs for kids,” he says. “What the Library Project does is build libraries – and very good libraries at that.”
