Books FOR ASIA Fund
Books for Asia
When you give to The Asia Foundation's Books for Asia Fund you are creating opportunities, educating future leaders, and helping empower the people of Asia. Education allows people to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to be productive and responsible citizens and to combat poverty and disease.
Special Update:
Ten containers with over 300,000 brand-new children's books are on their way to Afghanistan, Indonesia, Mongolia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The books will be delivered to schools, community libraries, and child care centers with the greatest need. Read more.
Just $1 can put a book into the hands of a child.
Donate Now to our Books for Asia Fund.
The Books for Asia Fund: Any Amount Can Help
The Books for Asia Fund allows individuals and corporations to support the Foundation's longest running program – Books for Asia. Additional support is needed with recent expansion to Afghanistan and East Timor in the last year, and plans to expand existing programs in conflict-affected areas, such as Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
Contributions to the Books for Asia Fund in any amount are grouped together and will help meet a wide range of critical and immediate needs including expanding outreach to the most remote regions, increasing the number of books shipments, and strengthening library infrastructure and staff.
Contribute to the Books for Asia Fund or mail a check to:
Books for Asia Fund
The Asia Foundation
P.O. Box 193223
San Francisco, CA 94119-3223
Expand Outreach to the Most Remote Regions
Books for Asia matches appropriate available books to the communities and libraries that need them most. In many countries, that means distributing books to the poorest, most remote, and often conflict-ridden areas. With additional funding, we can scale-up existing distribution methods, develop more local partnerships to enhance outreach to remote areas, and explore creative new distribution channels.
Increase the Number of Book Shipments
The demand for English language books in Asia's universities, schools,
and other libraries is limitless, and publishers have even greater
quantities of books available to donate than ever before. However,
insufficient funds to pay for transportation restrict the number of
shipments we can send. Full funding will enable Books for Asia to ship
more than 250,000 additional books and educational resources per year
to the neediest countries in Asia.
It costs approximately 20 cents per book to ship to Asia, and $3,000
supports the shipment of an average container which carries between
15,000 and 18,000 books. The average book donated by Books for Asia is
estimated to be worth approximately $35, based on industry standard
cost studies that are assessed each year during Books for Asia's
independent audit. The average container of donated books delivers more
than $500,000 worth of educational materials to needy libraries in Asia.
Strengthen Library Infrastructure and Staff
Books for Asia has identified the need for up to 10 multimedia reading rooms each in Afghanistan, East Timor, Cambodia, Nepal, and Mongolia and provide basic skills training for librarians in each of these five countries. In many Asian countries, especially those devastated by decades of conflict, libraries lack physical infrastructure such as shelves, catalogues, windows, and chairs to be utilized.
Country Specific Priority Projects
Individuals who are able to support the full cost of a project can make
a great impact in increasing literacy by choosing from the following
high priority projects in some of Asia's neediest countries:
Afghanistan
$10,000 - Send one additional shipment of 15,000 books to libraries in the country's neediest and most war-torn regions.
Bangladesh
$20,000 - Expand book collections in Islamic madrassahs (schools) and community libraries over a two-year period.
Cambodia
$20,000 - Expand distribution beyond the capital city. Double the
number of books delivered each year to schools, universities, and
libraries in rural areas outside of Phnom Penh.
India
$25,000 - Send two additional shipments of books to the neediest
regions, especially northeastern India, and provide distribution for a
year.
Indonesia
$20,000 - Rebuild school library collections that were destroyed in the 2004 tsunami.
$20,000 - Ship and distribute two containers of books to Islamic universities and secondary-level schools.
Laos
$20,000 - $60,000 - Provide books and staff training to improve library
capacity at the Central Library of the National University.
Mongolia
$5,000 - $30,000 - Send additional shipment of children's books and
expand distribution of books to Mongolia's most remote regions through
the mobile library book bus.
Nepal
$5,000 - Expand distribution of books, journals, and DVDs to promote public diplomacy.
Pakistan
$5,000 - Ship one additional container of 15,000 books to schools in Pakistan.
$20,000 - Send and distribute two containers of children's books to schools in partnership with local Pakistani NGOs.
Philippines
$7,000 - Send one additional shipment of books worth $500,000 to schools and communities in Mindanao.
Timor-Leste
$20,000 - Enable a mobile van to distribute books to rural districts and villages in the most remote regions of Timor-Leste.
Contact
To sponsor any of these high priority projects, please contact:
Jeanne
HuangLi
Associate Director, Resource Development
The Asia Foundation
465 California St., 9th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
415-743-3357
jhuangli@asiafound.org
See a full list of The Asia Foundation funds.