Last September, I came to Washington DC from Tokyo, and immediately joined the Book Project. As most of you may know, we donate books to schools and libraries in developing countries. Our source of books depends on donations from counties around DC, World Bank staff and external private donors. We have a diverse inventory of books ranging from children’s library books to university level.
The reason I casually stopped by at the Book Project office was just because I was looking for something to do and because I love books. From that moment on, I was hooked. Although the working environment is far from gorgeous, located in a deep basement of the J building without any sunshine, the “environment” and the sense you get from the people you work with here is wonderful. Our volunteer staff come from all over the world and each person brings their unique experiences. Thus, there are many different opinions on all kinds of issues from “whether we should send this particular book to a developing country” to political matters. And, we discuss these issues a lot. That is why it is interesting for me to be with them.
Whenever I get the opportunity to listen to personal stories from our local distributors or to others who are familiar with the countries where the books are being sent, I am deeply touched. Even if it sounds cliché, to me the personal accounts of those who have actually been in a particular situation is more powerful than anything I hear on the news. I can imagine how eager people are to have books in Nigeria or the Philippines. I can imagine how they don’t have libraries in their schools, or book shelves in their homes, or any books at all. These personal stories give me a very vivid image of all these children.
Several months ago, there were devastating earthquakes followed by tsunamis in Japan. People in northern Japan lost everything —families, friends, houses, money, clothes and books. Until then, it had been hard for me to imagine a time would come when Japanese people would have to worry about textbooks. We were in this situation before, several decades ago just after World War II, but the situation has changed dramatically since then with most people owning plenty of books and even throwing some away. However, as a result of the earthquake, we have seen Japanese people in the North experiencing the same situation as children and teenagers in some developing countries. Schools and books have been destroyed by the tsunami, and for the first time in a very long time, suddenly the Japanese people have found themselves without books for their students. Of course, there has been a major effort to send books to the North but for me, it was an insight into how one can’t take something as fundamental as reading books for granted.
I believe that by sending books, we are helping people change their future. I hope there will be a day when all people will enjoy the pleasure of having shelves full of books.
Life in Washington DC is very transient with people moving in and out all the time. I never imagined that I would live here but now here I am enjoying myself at the Book Project while helping children around the world. Why don’t you stop by?
By Asuka Okumura