Anyhoo, he gave a bunch of new RTR numbers that I thought I’d pass on.  I think a lot of this is available through their website, but why fish in a lake when you can aim in a barrel?* Exactly.

The Numbers

-110,000,000 kids aged 4-10 are not enrolled in school. (interesting point, if you lined all of these kids up and spaced them 1ft apart, they would stretch from Mpls, eastward across the Atlantic, across Europe, across Asia, across the Pacific, and all the way to California.

-800,000,000 people worldwide cannot read or write (that is ~1/7 of the population of the earth!)

-2/3 of both of the above categories are women (ouch, this sexist planet – John Wood, btw, is not sexist, he had a 2 minute rage on about the educational oppression of women and that so many women and men who live in a far more egalitarian society take it all for granted … I <3 him)

-In Cambodia, the ratio of boys to girls enrolled in secondary school is 3:1

The Tsunami

When the 2005 tsunami hit Sri Lanka, Room To Read had no team set up in the country.  The tsunami destroyed 250 schools in Sri Lanka alone.  John Wood and the RTR board had an emergency meeting, hired a team ASAP and within one year had rebuilt 39 new schools. Awesome.  Within two years, the number had shot to 89 since the tsunami.

Funding/Overhead

So, RTR has a 12% overhead.  They keep their overhead so low by setting up fundraising posts all over the globe.  Volunteers in cities throughout the US, Europe and parts of Asia are constantly fundraising through word-of-mouth initiatives.  I believe he said that this accounts for 1/3 of the funding that Room To Read receives.  Neat!

Impact

-5,000 libraries built (in 2007, they opened 1,600 libraries!)

-444 schools built (and they’re planning to construct 250 more in 2008!)

-250 original children’s book titles published (To write these books, they find authors, illustrators, and editors in the country.  The first books were for Nepal, and when RTR began searching for authors they were told by numerous sources that they most likely wouldn’t find any, as children’s lit had never been present in the culture.  Soon after this, though, they found a group, the Nepal Children’s Literacy Initiative … or something like that, and within one month of touching base with this group they received more than 30 children’s books manuscripts!  Ha!  Now, many of the titles have been written and illustrated by children who attend the RTR schools (cute!))

-As of 2007, 4000 girls were receiving full scholarships to school.  In 2008, they want to see this number grow to 7000.  (The scholarships, FYI, provide a full ride so long as the girl continues to pass her classes.  Each year that she passes, the scholarship is renewed.

And finally, the Dream Big Goals:

By 2020:

20,000 libraries opened.

10,000,000 children helped by RTR programs.

And that’s all of it! I could probably write another 6 pages just on how awesome a speaker and man I think John Wood is.  Perhaps a new personal hero.

Have a great day guys!!

*Side note from Aaron King, Director

Abby, funny that you reference shooting fish in a barrel:  I watched Mythbusters last night, and they were investigating the origin of the phrase and actually ease of shooting fish in a barrel.  Their initial attempts showed that it is actually very difficult to hit a fish swimming in a barrel (they used a fake fish)… but they did some additional research and discovered that you don’t have to hit a fish, but simply firing a gun into a barrel of water creates such a disruption of the  water pressure that any fish in the barrel would be killed instantly… that’s what makes shooting fish in a barrel so easy!  And don’t worry, they did not use any live fish, they came to all these conclusions through science and data.

Great stuff about Room to Read!

Bruno!

Seventeen-year-old Bruno was born and raised in Salvador, Bahia, where he lives with his mother, a domestic worker, and his two younger sisters.

Bruno has always liked electronics and is working towards becoming an engineer. When he was 14, he was accepted into the Steve Biko Institute’s three-year, intensive after-school Oguntec Program, which prepares disadvantaged Afro-Brazilian students for the vestibular (university entrance exam). Last year, at age 16, Bruno took his first exam for admission to the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and passed the first phase for Electrical Engineering. Bruno graduated from high school in December 2007 and hopes to begin his university studies in 2008.

Bruno believes that his participation in the Oguntec Program was the best thing that ever happened to him. It was as a student in this program that he learned that the word “quit” is not part of his vocabulary. He also learned that for a young man from a poor neighborhood, completing high school is not enough. He needs to dream of attending university. Bruno’s goals include attending university, establishing a career, and changing the economic situation of his family.

As Bruno states, “Attending university will make me the first, the first child, the first grandson, the first nephew in one generation to believe in the DREAM. Afterwards, I would like to return the Steve Biko Institute and become a professor in the Oguntec Program which I believe should always continue. It was at the Institute that I learned to have a social commitment.”

The National Center for Family Literacy, based in Louisville, has named Deborah Hasson director of the Hispanic Learning Institute and co-director of Toyota Programs, which focus on serving Hispanic and other immigrant families. Hasson, the daughter of Argentine immigrants, formerly was an assistant professor and program coordinator at Florida State University.

Related: We talked about the NCFL’s commitment to Hispanic Learning

Our partners are always making big news. I can hardly post something on here before something new and exciting comes out about the same group. For example, before we showed you Room to Read at the Clinton Global Initiative, and you would think that would be enough excitement for a while, but alas reader, you would be mistaken. My inbox tells me today that Room to Read is up to more big things. Feel free to check out the full newsletter or my digest below for you busy types.

GOOD Magazine
Room to Read has partnered with GOOD Magazine since 2006 to benefit children in the developing world through GOOD’s unique subscription/donor model. Founded by Ben Goldhirsch in 2004, the magazine seeks to “do good” in the world by contributing 100% of subscription revenue to twelve selected charities. Through this “Choose Good” campaign, subscribers select the charity they would like their donation to go to – this year they have contributed over $52,000 to Room to Read! [emphasis mine]

In addition to donating subscription fees to charities, GOOD hosts a number of events around the country to spread awareness about the Choose Good campaign and their charity partners. These events are always a lot of fun and offer a great opportunity to meet other individuals who are passionate about changing the world. For a list of upcoming GOOD events, please visit: www.goodmagazine.com.

The Literacy Site
Room to Read has been selected as a charity partner of the Literacy Site, which is dedicated to funding free books for children. With a simple daily click of the “Click Here to Give – it’s FREE” button at The Literacy Site, visitors help provide free books to children in need. Visitors pay nothing. The funding of these books is paid for by advertising site sponsors and accomplished through the site’s charitable partners, Room to Read and First Book.

On average, 70,000 individuals visit the site each day to click the “Click Here to Give – it’s FREE” button. To date, more than 55 million visitors have helped provide more than a million books to children who need them the most. We hope you will bookmark the site and visit everyday to click and help children in need get free books. Every click counts!

Little notes (still N.B.!):

• Room to Read and John Wood are featured on page 59-60 in Bill Clinton’s book Giving
• John Wood and Erin Ganju, Room to Read’s COO, were invited to a breakfast at the White House with the First Lady Laura Bush
• Room to Read is the featured charity in Neiman Marcus’ 100th Year Anniversary Christmas Book which debuted on October 2
• Literacy One (a product of Scholastic, Boeing and Cathway Pacific) takes flight, carrying 750,000 English language children’s books for libraries in over the next three years.
• Room to Read opens library in Nepal: their 5000th library!!!

Hey all Worldfund supporters, this one goes out to you, a la Luanne Zurlo, Executive Director:

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for your generosity to Worldfund.  Since our foundation five years ago, we have invested $3.2 million in the education of some 30,000 children in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

Your contributions this past year enabled Worldfund to finance our partner schools, teacher training, and gifted youth programs throughout the region. Your donations have helped fund scholarships for over 440 children; repair school buildings in Peru that were damaged in last summer’s earthquake; and train 50 Mexican teachers in English language instruction through our partnership with Nextel, the Rassias Foundation at Dartmouth College, and Fundación Televisa. We have also increased our support to Brazil by adding three new programs: the Reading Circles Program in São Paulo, the Starfish School in Maceió, Alagoas, and the Steve Biko Cultural Institute in Salvador, Bahia.

We sincerely thank you for your support. You have truly made a difference in the lives of underprivileged children and their families in Latin America!

Students in Acapulco, Mexico, sending their thanks.

Sincerely,
Luanne Zurlo
Executive Director

In Meheba Refugee Settlement, it’s hard not to notice Brigitte and Boniface, a married couple in their late 30s.  The proud parents of two young children, they have lived in Zambia as refugees for five years.  The couple was forced to flee the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002 when the school where Boniface taught was attacked by rebel forces.  At the time they fled, Brigitte was seven months pregnant with Easter, their oldest daughter, who would be born in prison after they crossed the border.  After a few months in separate prisons (their refugee status was difficult to achieve), Brigitte and Boniface reunited in Lusaka, where they lived for a few years as urban refugees before moving to Meheba.

With a degree in biochemistry from the University of Lubumbashi, Boniface speaks eleven languages fluently.  He has pursued careers in business and teaching in Zambia’s capital.  Despite his talents and qualifications, Boniface has faced numerous barriers to holding stable employment due to the high cost of work permits, and heavy prejudice against refugees.  Boniface currently works as the Office Manager for the FORGE Microfinance Institute (FMI) in Meheba. After more than a year of preparation and planning, Boniface recently helped FMI launch a Savings Program to encourage people in Meheba to put their money into savings.

You’ll find Brigitte working at her tailoring business in the center of Meheba’s largest market, spinning out clothing for the community.  Not only is Brigitte skilled on the sewing machine, but she has also put herself through an intensive business skills program in Lusaka which required her to walk more than 10 miles a day to and from class.  As her business thrives, more educational opportunities become available to the family.

Apart from their children and jobs, Brigitte and Boniface devote their time to a local Pentecostal congregation in Meheba, where Boniface serves as a Pastor.  At the moment, the couple does not know if they will repatriate to Congo should it become peaceful, or if they will try their luck applying for resettlement to a new country.  In the meantime, they focus on providing a safe home for their two children within the limited confines of Meheba, where they will wait.

In honor of National Family Literacy Day on November 1, NCFL is undertaking a variety of activities designed to raise awareness about intergenerational learning among the general public and media. The results will further increase the understanding that literacy is the foundation for success in our families, schools and communities.

Here are just a few ways NCFL is celebrating:

A new, free, parent-friendly magazine called Cultivating Readers: Making Reading Active and Fun is being unveiled. Written by NCFL with funding from Houghton Mifflin, the magazine provides effective and easy strategies for promoting reading throughout a child’s early years. It includes activities for parents of children ages birth to two, three to five, and six to eight, plus tips on selecting age-appropriate books. Visit Cultivating Readers at the NCFL website for more information and to download this great resource, which will help parents nurture a lifelong love of reading in their children.

The company that has served billions and billions is now serving a steady diet of family literacy in Southern California. On November 1, NCFL will partner with 600 Southern California McDonald’s restaurants to bring parents and children together to learn and support each other to improve their reading, writing and thinking skills. Following a book reading, NCFL and McDonald’s will team up to distribute books to each family in attendance and provide parents with tips on ways to improve their family’s literacy skills. In addition, McDonald’s will feature family literacy on its tray liners and bag stuffers.

Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, will announce its support of NCFL and launch a new product, My Word Coach (for the Nintendo Wii and DS systems), in New York City on November 1. A nationwide online contest, the “Great American Word Challenge,” will pit city against city to measure their greatness not by the height of their skyscrapers but by the depth of their vocabularies. The city that gets the highest cumulative average score takes the title and the prize, which includes a Ubisoft donation of Nintendo DS units and My Word Coach games to local NCFL learning centers. Log on to Great American Word Challenge for additional details.

picture of Nubia of Acapulco, Mexico, Worldfund Student of the Month (October).

Worldfund is pleased to be an invited participant at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), which is currently taking place in New York City, and where I write to you from today!  Worldfund is proposing two projects at the CGI, both Mexico-focused: an intensive training program for public school teachers; and, the opening of five top-quality Mano Amiga schools in impoverished border communities.

As Worldfund’s Founder and Executive Director, I was invited by the CGI to participate in these important meetings. President Bill Clinton introduced the CGI in 2005, as a forum for global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

Also, we are incredibly grateful to Merrill Lynch for its generous support of Worldfund this fall and since our foundation nearly five years ago. As part of its celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month in September and October, Merrill Lynch organized a Better World Books book drive on behalf of Worldfund at numerous offices throughout the country. Thousands of books were collected and boxes are still arriving, so everyone who participated can be sure that their contributions made a difference! Merrill Lynch also launched its Employee Global Giving Campaign earlier this month and chose Worldfund as the recipient of donations targeted to Latin America. We are thrilled to be a part of the company’s first global campaign and hope that employees in Latin America will have the opportunity to see firsthand the transformative impact that our education partners have on children’s lives.

Warmest regards,
Luanne Zurlo, Executive Director
Worldfund

Many, many, many of these books are from Better World Books… The university [St. John's University, Dodoma, Tanzania] staff were extremely pleased with the books according to our BFA staff, and indicated great appreciation to the donors.  Apparently, the university was running the risk of being closed down by the government due to a lack of a proper library, so these books were critical to education and allowing the university to stay open.

Thanks.

Best regards,

–Pat

Patrick Plonski
Executive Director
Books For Africa

Hey all, just got the latest news from Books for Africa via their Fall Newsletter and it’s very exciting!

First of all, BFA has shipped 17.5 million primary, secondary, post-secondary and library books to 35 (that’s right, 35!) countries since 1988.  This year alone they sent 119 containers to 22 different countries from Angola to Kenya to Zimbabwe and more.

In addition, to all of you Books For Africa supporters out there, go to www.betterworld.com/bfa when you want to buy books and click on the BFA logo, this will ensure that the proceeds put towards a literacy partner of any book that you purchase will go to Books for Africa!

Also, Books for Africa’s Donor Appreciation Day will be on Sasturday, November 17th from 3:30 – 6:30 at 715 East Minnehaha Ave, St. Paul, MN 55106.  Music, refreshments and light hors d’oeuvres will be provided along with a warehouse open house to “see what all the excitement is about!”  Volunteers, donors and friends are all invited!

Join the most creative and progressive leaders working to integrate families, communities and education at the 17th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy: “Literacy Grows Families and Communities.”

The event, a signature activity of the National Center for Family Literacy, is the largest and most comprehensive conference for educators, community leaders, philanthropists and government officials dedicated to family literacy.

Session topics will highlight innovative approaches to helping families achieve their goals through literacy. Speakers will include Loriene Roy, American Library Association; David W. Murphy, Better World Books; Dorothy Kauffman, Center for Applied Linguistics; Peter DeBenedittis, author and consultant; Karen L. Mapp, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Faith Rogow, Insighters Educational Consulting; Christopher J. Lonigan, Florida State University; and Cristina Jose-Kampfner, Latino Health Access.

The Conference will be held March 29 –31, 2008, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Online registration is available now! Brochures will be mailed in October. Visit www.famlit.org/conference for details.

Hey everyone, use this link to see a great page about Room to Read, a brief history and some talk about what’s going on with them today.  A must read for anyone working with them and a interesting read for anyone who would come to this blog!

RtR @ MSN news

Dear Friends:

Worldfund is pleased to be an invited participant at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), which is currently taking place in New York City, and where I write to you from today!  Worldfund is proposing two projects at the CGI, both Mexico-focused: an intensive training program for public school teachers; and, the opening of five top-quality Mano Amiga schools in impoverished border communities.

[ed: The following letter is from Pat Plonski of Books for Africa to David Murphy, CEO of Better World Books, it talks about the exciting steps that BFA and BWB are taking to make more impact and make sure the money that you help raise is going to the right places!]

Hello David–

Just wanted to show you these latest numbers regarding the incredible impact being made by the Better World Books Fund of Books for Africa in just the last two and one half months. Including the container that we just sent yesterday to Ghana, the Better World Books Fund has leveraged the delivery of 13 containers of books (400,000 books) to eight countries valued at $2.3 million. We have shipped to Kenya, Tanzania, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Algeria, and Ghana. Not bad for 12 weeks! The establishment of the Better World Books Fund has frankly transformed our shipping operation by allowing Books for Africa to leverage donations from individuals who cannot afford to pay for a full container, and by allowing us to ship to countries never before served by BFA. Book shipments at Books for Africa are up dramatically this fiscal year, and are in fact on a track to increase by at least 50% over last year.

So that’s the latest. Shipments are way up in large part to the Better World Books Fund. About half of our shipments over the past 12 weeks have been in collaboration with Better World Books. Of course, those regular payments designated for unrestricted funding (which we receive from you on a monthly basis) to underwrite our ongoing operations are also coming in very handy.

Thanks much for all you and the Better World Books team is doing. We expect to reach our goal of shipping 20 million books to Africa next year and our collaboration with BWB has been a key element in our success.

–Pat

Patrick Plonski
Executive Director
Books for Africa

Help End the Book Famine in Africa! View the BFA Story

I received this today from our partner, The National Center for Family Literacy, and wanted to share it with everyone.  NCFL is doing great work and this press release…..timed to coincide with the celebration of International Literacy Day (September 8^th)……is a great way to draw attention to the issue of illiteracy in our own country……

David W. Murphy
President and CEO
Better World Books

USA Today just published a letter written by Sharon Darling, the president & founder of the National Center for Family Literacy. The letter was in response to an article last week (8/9/07, “Hispanic growth extends eastward“) about Hispanic population growth in the U.S. – here’s an excerpt:

…Questions were raised about how this population pattern will affect school budgets and how newcomers can be transformed into workers and taxpayers. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the statistics: The nation’s largest and fastest growing minority is also the only one that experienced a decline in literacy from 1992 to 2003. It’s no coincidence, then, that in 2001, Hispanic dropout rates were about four times higher than those for whites. But the dropout rate for Hispanic students who speak English well is only 16%, compared with 59% for those who do not, according to a 2003 report by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The key to meeting the immediate and long-term needs of this population is to focus on intergenerational learning. The National Center for Family Literacy has piloted programs in large cities with substantial Hispanic populations … Family literacy is a solution on which everyone can agree.

Click here to read the article in full on USA Today’s website.

There’s also a great article about the Better World Books/Room to Read partnership – from now till the end of the year, $5 from the sale of every Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book on www.BetterWorld.com will go to funding the establishment of libraries in Nepal and Sri Lanka! Our goal is to raise $15,000 to construct 5 libraries, so if you haven’t picked up a copy yet, click here to get one today!

Introduced in Head Start centers in three U.S. cities, NCFL’s La Lectura En Familia (Families Reading Together) has shown great promise in improving Hispanic parents’ ability to support their child’s language and literacy development.

Results from the project, which was funded by Pitney Bowes Literacy and Education Fund, were published in the May/June issue of Profiles in Diversity Journal, a national publication that is read by more than 1 million corporate, diversity, education and philanthropic leaders.

Children participating in the pilot program showed significant gains in reading, and parents reported increases in reading to their children and visiting the library with their family.

Check it out!

Damon has worked in the Meheba refugee settlement in Zambia; he’s been managing a project called PACE (Project for African Community Empowerment). You can read more about Damon’s work on his fascinating blog: http://www.pacenow.blogspot.com/

Hamjambo! It’s been over a month since the last update, and a lot has happened. So this may be a long update. But it’s exciting and will be worth your time to read. I promise.

Both the men’s and women’s projects have quickly transformed from vague ideas to real projects that are being implemented. After deciding on what problems they want to address, both groups have accelerated into the implementation phase, meeting with me five times a week and often meeting for hours at a time on their own, even as their work load has increased due to cultivation. Let me fill you in on the development of each project over the past month. Ladies first…

The women are aiming to help people improve their harvest, the primary source of food and income for almost everyone in the community. They decided the most effective way to help people improve their harvests in the short- and long-term is by providing them with fertilizer and hiring a professional agricultural extension worker to give free workshops for anyone interested in the community. Most farmers are simply too poor to purchase fertilizer which, if used properly, can triple their yields. The workshops will educate people on the most effective modern farming techniques and help them to understand the science behind farming, enabling them to manage their farms more effectively instead of blindly doing whatever others are doing in hopes that it will work.

The women immediately realized that if they wanted to help farmers improve their harvest this year they would have to work hard and fast. People would be planting soon, and one of the two types of fertilizer needs to be applied at the same time that the seeds are planted. The women needed to hurry, but could not proceed hastily. They were facing a serious challenge–determining what price they would need to charge people in return for the loans of fertilizer. Instead of charging people up-front, the women are loaning people fertilizer in return for corn in May, after people have harvested their crops. The market rate for a fifty kilogram bag of fertilizer is about $32. The government subsidizes fertilizer for registered cooperatives which only have to pay $12 for the same bag of fertilizer. Unfortunately, it takes six months to register as a cooperative, meaning that we had to purchase the fertilizer at the market rate. People in Meheba are not accustomed to having to pay the market rate. They expected to pay no more than one hundred kilograms of corn per bag of fertilizer. We eventually calculated that we could make a slim but adequate profit if we charged people one hundred forty kilograms of corn per bag of fertilizer. When we conducted a last-minute feasibility analysis to see if people would be willing to pay that much per bag of fertilizer, only a handful of people said yes. We had cut the expenses a much as possible and reduced the profit margin substantially. There was nothing else we could do. We had to either go for it or wait until next year. But quite a few people in the community were expecting to receive loans and had prepared their fields in anticipation of applying fertilizer. (Apparently, how one prepares his field depends on whether he is planning on using fertilizer or not.) Those people would be very disappointed if the fertilizer was not distributed.

So we went for it. The women commissioned my translator and me to go to Solwezi and buy three and a half tons of fertilizer. Two days later we rode back on top of a huge truck carrying seventy bags of fertilizer. The women had been taking applications for the fertilizer loans while we were gone. They had received eighteen. The day they scheduled to distribute the fertilizer an additional thirty people showed up asking to receive the loans too. So it turned out that people were just bluffing when they said they wouldn’t pay one hundred forty kilograms of maize per bag of fertilizer. Since distributing those seventy bags, rumors have circulated that we will be loaning out more and dozens of people have asked the women participants if they can still get some.

I asked a couple of the women why so few people seemed interested in the beginning and it was only after the fertilizer showed up that they started coming out of the woodwork to request loans. They told me that very few people had taken the project seriously until they saw the fertilizer being passed out with their own eyes. They said that many NGOs have come to the community with big ideas in the past, gotten people excited, and then not delivered. It has turned the people of Zone F into skeptics. Understandably. I was happy to have the opportunity to show them that there are still organizations like FORGE who honor their word and deliver on their promises.

At the same time as all this was happening, the women found a highly qualified extension worker who lives in the camp to give two workshops a week. He is a tall, quiet man with a huge smile who is always on time, which is very unusual and unfortunate since most of the attendees of the workshops show up over an hour late. I have attended two of the workshops so far and am glad to report that not only does he know what he is talking about, he is also an excellent and patient teacher. It’s not often that you find someone who is an expert in his field and an excellent teacher as well. Community members listen attentively and ask dozens of questions that they have probably had for years. After the extension worker answers them thoughtfully and clearly, everyone nods and smiles at each other. I smile too. Funny how knowledge can make you so happy.

The women’s next challenge is to build the storehouse where they will keep all the corn they will be receiving in May. In order to make a profit, they will need to keep it in storage until next September or January, when the prices for corn will be about three times higher than they are in May, when the supply is high and the demand low. In order to build the storehouse, they need $1,000. I have encouraged them to seek investors in their business to pay for the construction expenses. They think it will be difficult to find investors. Very few people in the community have ever invested in anything before. No one has witnessed how the business is run because it has just started. And in a poor community, people are very risk-averse with the little money they have. Still, the women believe they can attract $500 of investment capital from among people in the community. I told them that I would commit to matching every dollar (or kwacha) that they raise through my own fundraising efforts. In addition to that $500, I would also like to raise an additional $2,500 for their project.

According to the current plan, they will be forced to sell their corn in September so that they have cash to purchase more fertilizer in October to be distributed in November. The market for corn in September is good, but it peaks in January. If they were able to sell the corn in January instead of September they could more than double their profits of $350 to almost $1,000. In following years the profits would be even greater because they would be buying the fertilizer at the discounted price as a registered cooperative organization. Having an extra $2,500 would enable them to buy the fertilizer in October and still keep the corn until January. Increased profits will be good for three reasons. First, it will allow them to purchase more fertilizer each year, helping more and more farmers every year. Second, it will give the people who invested in the business a better pay-off for their investment, making them and others more willing to invest in the future. Third, PACE is by far the biggest investor in the business.

A large majority of the profits will belong to PACE. I have stipulated that those profits may only be used either for reinvestment in the business of for other PACE-authorized social projects or enterprises that they come up with. That means that if the women start a scholarship program for children in the community to go to high school with the profits from this business, bigger profits will allow more children to be sent to high school from Zone F each year. The additional $2,500 will pay off in a big way in the long-term.

Just thirty donations of $100 will multiply the benefits of this project several times over. Please consider giving $100 (or whatever you are able to give, more or less) for the women’s project. It may be the biggest bang you ever get out of $100 holiday gift. Please make checks out to “FORGE” and send them to:
Damon Luloff
312 NE Eaglewood Dr.
Ankeny, IA 50021

Now, onto the men’s project…

The men’s project is a bit simpler in many ways. They aim to provide transportation to Zone F, which has not had access to transportation in years. Currently if anyone wants to travel out of the camp, they have to walk about ninety minutes to the nearest bus stop (and as my translator says, “that’s ninety minutes if one is a strong walker”). If they buy anything in the city they have to carry it back that same distance once the bus drops them off, usually after dusk. The men originally wanted to buy a five ton truck to transport people and goods all over the camp, to the nearest big town Solwezi, to the border of Congo (one of the best markets in the region), and anywhere else people want to go. However, after seeing that the budget would be $12,000 and that they’d have to raise $9,500 of that on their own, they changed their strategy. They decided to buy a minibus instead, which they are hoping to buy for about $4,000. PACE invested $2,500 in the project, meaning that they had to come up with the rest of the $1,500. After seeing results with the women’s project, people in the community with the means to contribute that kind of capital were no longer skeptical about PACE and FORGE. In just two days the men were able to raise the remaining $1,500 they needed to start the business.

They brought this money to me so that I could physically see it to show that they weren’t joking… They weren’t joking. I was impressed. They said that people in the community wanted the project to start as soon as possible. People had gone long enough without transportation. They also told me that they wanted to get started before I left so that I could take pictures and video to show PACE donors and supporters (you) that the project had really started–so you could see it with your own eyes. As my translator often says about the men: “They are very serious.” According to their calculations, the minibus should bring in at least $300 a week in pure profit. They plan on saving all the profits so that in May they can put a down payment on the five ton vehicle they originally wanted to buy and start operating it once people harvest their crops and need to start transporting them. Usually, vehicle operators come into Zone F from outside Meheba and charge exorbitant rates. People have no option but to accept. Not this year! According to the men’s calculations, they will be able to charge 25% less than other operators and still make the $300 a week profit. Now that’s community empowerment!

I still wish I could stay an extra month or two to see the projects through their initial stages. But when I leave in one week, I will leave confident that they will succeed. I hope you are confident too.

This will be my last update from Zambia. I want to express my gratitude to all of you who have supported PACE over the past year, helping to bring what was once just an idea into fruition. It’s come a long way and has turned into everything I hoped it would be. It truly would not have been possible without you. I wish you could see the impact your support and contributions have made here. As much as I try to express and describe the change you’ve made possible here in this lengthy email, I’m sure I don’t do justice to the actual impact you have had. I hope that you can see what a difference you have made as an individual supporting a community you have never met. The people of Zone F thank you daily. I wish you could hear the things they say and hear the genuineness in the way they say them.

If PACE proves to be half as successful as it looks like it will be in Zone F, I will be compelled to implement it in other communities in Africa. With your support, I’m sure that it will be possible.

Aksanti sana! (Thank you SO much!)
Damon

Titled “Newspaper Inspiration: New Generation,” the 16-page tabloid features engaging articles and activities, all geared towards making reading the local newspaper a family affair. The literacy information and activities for parents and children of all ages include:

• Activities to improve reading and match comprehension
• Parent resources
• Word games and activity calendars
• Literacy volunteer opportunities

Last year’s version ran in more than 400 newspapers throughout the nation with a combined circulation of more than 25,000,000!

You can download the beautifully designed tabloid from NCFL’s site: http://www.famlit.org/site/c.gtJWJdMQIsE/b.1466911/apps/s/content.asp?ct=2992071

In addition, NCFL recently sent Better World Books a series of stories about the parents that benefit from their family literacy programs. Here’s a feature on Carolina Hernandez, a family literacy student through the Even Start program at McFerran Elementary in Louisville , KY.

Originally from Mexico , Carolina is married with two children. She has lived in Louisville for six years. With just six months in the Even Start program, she has already learned a lot.  The Even Start program helped Hernandez keep the job she’s had for two years. The money she earns at her job helps to support her family and she also sends what money she can to her parents in Mexico . Although the program has helped her maintain employment, her children are her priority. She wants to learn English so that she can help them with their homework.

In her own words: “I like to be independent. When I arrived here, if I needed to go with a doctor, I had to call a translator or pay money. Now I can do it myself. The important thing that I like is I can help my children with their homework. Also, it’s very important to me that I can answer my son’s questions. I think it is basic for their education.”

Stay tuned for more great stories like Carolina’s!