Scott and Erin Farver: October 2007

Overwhelmed. That is what I am feeling right now. Not in a bad way, not at all. I'm overwhelmed by the support that our friends and family (basically people who are reading this right now...so most likely, YOU!) have given us for the library renovation project at our school. The funds have been totally raised! If you go to the Peace Corps website linked in the last post, you will not find our project proposal because it is completely funded from the American side.
Awesome!

Thank you so much for your generosity. Because of a mix of holidays and semester break here, we will not be able to proceed with the project for another week or two, but we are beginning the initial stages of preparation. The teachers are excited to begin.

If you were able to donate, thank you very much. If you were willing, but unable to donate, thank you as well.

If anyone is still interested in donating books you can email me at scott.farver@gmail.com for more information.

We will continue to update as the project progresses.
Thanks again!!
Scott and Erin

I'm very excited right now. I just found out that the proposal I was working on with my counterpart here has been approved!
"Proposal?" you ask. "What proposal?"
Well, let me tell you about it.

To make a very long story short, we have a library at our school that is not currently functioning because--
a....there is no full time librarian at the school
b...many books are not suited to elementary school students
and
c...the library is not an inviting place for young students.

Many organizations from the US and other countries have made generous donations to the library over the years. The books were given with the best intentions, I'm sure, but here are some examples of what has been donated:

-California Driver's Education textbook, copyright 1978
-Architecture Today (45 copies), 700+ pages
-World Economics, copyright 1966
-Modern Science, copyright 1964 ('...There are plans to one day land on the moon!')

Our goal at the school was to put good, relevant children's books into the hands of the students. Many new donors have done just that, generously giving over 1000 children's books that the students are excited to read. Many of these new books are favorites of mine, including:

-Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day
-Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
-There's a Monster at the End of This Book
-over 25 Magic Tree House books

...just to name a few. One of the 5th graders volunteering right now in the library is striving to read all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books that we received.

So we have books (though we are always on the lookout for more!), but the library still is not very inviting for the students. It's dark, the tables are big and most students can't reach books on the higher shelves.

This is where our proposal comes into play. Our project is to renovate the current library to make it more accessible to the students. We're going to install a new tile floor, paint the room brighter, add mural, have new lighting installed, put fans in so it doesn't get 323489734 degrees (Celsius--around 108 Fahrenheit I think) and build new bookshelves that kids can reach.

The main idea of the Partnership Program is basically to allow friends and family of Peace Corps Volunteers to help partner up with community members in the volunteer's host country to complete a project. Every PCPP project has to have a counterpart by the community involved. In our case, the school is willing to counterpart around 33 percent of the total cost of the renovation. This counterpart allows them to have a stake in the project and gives them ownership of it.

This is from the Peace Corps website explaining about the PCPP:
"You can support Peace Corps projects all around the world by donating through the Peace Corps Partnership Program. All donations are tax deductible and 100% of your contribution goes to the project you select."

If anyone is willing to donate to our project they can go to the link below.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/regioncontrib.cfm?region=asia&

If you're feeling especially generous, remember, there are programs and projects like this going on with other Peace Corps Volunteers all over the world. This link is just for projects in Asia--there are loads of other projects that can be partnered with as well--everything from water pump installation in remote villages to running sports or theater camps to building or renovating libraries.
:-)

Again, like the website says, all money donated is 100% tax deductible, and the community receives every cent that you donate for it's project.

It's probably easiest to donate online, but if you're not comfortable with that you can write a check or there is also a toll-free number you can call.

800.424.8580 ext. 2170

Please don't feel that you need to donate a large amount, either. Every dollar literally counts.

Also, if you or someone you know is interested in donating books to the library, please email me

scott.farver@gmail.com

Thanks for any help! We're excited to get this project going!

Scott