Although it was cold and rainy outside on Friday, RCSE still managed to bring the fun and warmth to our weekly meeting. President Jason Jones reminded everyone to sign up for Read United which will be on Friday, February 24th. He also encouraged people to sign up for the annual RCSE Oyster Roast on Saturday, February 18th. Once all Rotary Business items were discussed, Katie Gingrich introduced our speaker for the day, fellow Rotarian Roy Austin, who spoke about his organization Libraries for Kids, International.
Libraries for Kids, International provides books to children in Kenya. In Kenya, there is only one textbook for every 20-30 students. Since the students have to share these books, it considerably slows down the learning process. There are 6700 rural schools in Kenya and they have placed books in half of them. By putting books in 3400 libraries, they have impacted 3/4 million children. The impact of these donations is great! There is an increase in enrollment, test scores have improved, students come in early to read, and parents come in the evening for additional education. Currently, the program is only in Kenya but Roy and his team are making contacts in other countries in order to expand the program. Throughout Roy's presentation, he was showing slides after slides of children and schools in Kenya.
100% of donations go to the program unless stated otherwise. There is not any paid staff in the United States but they do have an Operations Coordinator in Kenya. Less than 3% of the operating costs are used for Administration. They ship the books to Africa on containers and have partnered with Books for Africa to handle the logistics. Libraries for Kids, International needs donations, volunteers and people to participate in their upcoming fundraising event in Bluffton. If you would like to learn more about this organization, please visit https://www.libraries4kids.org/