[Peace] FW: Sending books to rebuild Afghanistan's libraries

[Tulsi Dharmarajan]

Hello all!

Some of you may have heard the NPR program featuring 'Books for
Freedom', the organization that has been arranging to send books to
Afghan libraries destroyed over the last two decades.

Before I moved to Urbana last month, I contacted them and shipped
several of my books that I was not using and did not want to carry,
including journals. Since all of us have books that we are not using,
having multiple copies of, are no longer interested in or have decided
not to use in class, I thought others may be interested in doing the
same thing. Therefore, I am circulating the following information to all
of you.

I don't normally send messages like this out, but I do think this is a
really good cause. Not all of us can go re-build roads and work in
hospitals and teach in rural schools, but we can help re-build libraries
in Afghanistan, while also making room on our bookshelves. Please pass
it on to anyone you think might be interested.

If you have more questions you can look up the organization's website,
http://www.booksforfreedom.org/, or contact David Oclander
<davidioclander at aol.com>. If I can help in any way, I would also be very
happy to do so.

Thanks for reading this through!

Swarna Rajagopalan

PS: For those on this list in Political Science/ International Studies/
Public Administration, please note at the very end, they specifically
ask for books that would be useful in reconstruction or civil society
building.

************************************************************************
************

Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 15:54:32 EDT
Subject: Books for Freedom

Hi. I apologize for the delay in responding to everyone who has so
generously offered us books. We greatly appreciate your support and look
forward to your continued interest and contributions. This has been an
exciting time for Books for Freedom, as recent press coverage on NPR and
in
USA Today has given us wonderful exposure and exciting opportunities to
work
with people all over the country. Further, our first book shipment will
be
arriving in Pakistan imminently and then head off on its 3-4 week
journey to
Kabul.

As you can imagine, being a "start-up" of sorts, our funds, resources,
and
capacity are rather limited (hence the delay in my ability to respond),
so we
need money and volunteer members...as well as books. Below, I will
address
the various ways people can help us with funds, volunteering, and/or
books.
If some of this seems a bit bureaucratic or restrictive, I apologize in
advance.

FUNDS
One of our sponsors - Chris Street - provided a very generous
contribution
which got the organization off the ground. However, money continues to
be
our area of greatest need. Most of the money that we receive will be
used
for packaging and shipping books. We have spent roughly $17,000 so far,
and
the vast majority it was spent on packaging and shipping. We expect that
the
second shipment will cost as much or more than the first did, to pack
and
ship. We would encourage money donations to defray this cost. Any
contributions should be sent to:
Books for Freedom
c/o Tasha Dolan
1111 Bayside Drive, Suite 100
Corona del Mar, CA 92625

VOLUNTEER MEMBERS
We are in the process of developing new positions that have become
necessary.
If you are interested in helping BFF coordinate its efforts nationwide,
please contact our president, Melissa Street, at mstreet at wiley.com.

BOOKS & MAGAZINES
(1) Group Book Drives. If you have contacted us interested in sponsoring
a
book drive in your area, we can work with you ONLY if you live in the
area of
New York City; Los Angeles; or Elba, Alabama--or are willing to either
(i)
drive a U-Haul truck filled with your books to one of those areas or
(ii)
raise the funds to pay for shipping of your books to one of those areas.
We
unfortunately do not have the present ability to provide free shipping
to
people in other areas; however, if you would like to be on our waiting
list,
please let me know and we can get back in touch with you when we have
more
resources. See the next section for the types of books your drive can
collect.

(2) Individual Donors. If you have contacted us wishing to send any of
your
own books, we ask the following:
(a) Insure the books are within the below listed criteria. These are
important to insure we send books of the proper quality and type.
--published/printed in 1980 or later--which doesn't exclude a book, like
Moby
Dick, that was copywritten before 1980 as long as it was printed in 1980
or
later
--has its front and back cover attached and in tact
-- the information in the book is up-to-date (this should primarily
apply to
technical or medical manuals but may also apply elsewhere)
--the type of book you have fits within one of the categories listed in
the
attached book list document (Word file). In particular, we are seeking
children's books, secondary education textbooks (K-12), and native
language
books (Arabic, Farsi, Pashto).
(b) Provide for us the following information about the books you can
send:
-- number of books
-- title, author, and brief description (no more than one sentence is
necessary) of up to 2-3 books you'll be sending
(c) Provide for us the following contact information about yourself,
which is
important, not only to communicate, but to watch out for your package
when it
arrives.
--Your name
--Address
--Phone Number
--Email Address

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
(1) How should the books be packed and shipped to Books for Freedom?
If you have a large quantity of books to send, they should be packed in
a
standard book box that most moving companies sell specifically for
books.
You can also use the boxes that contain reams of office paper. Each box
should be packed to capacity with as little empty room as possible. Each
box
should be marked on the outside with certain codes indicating the
categories
of books it contains; we can provide this for you at a later point.
If you have only a few books, you may simply mail them to us as you
ordinarily would by regular mail.

(2) When should I ship my books to Books for Freedom?
You may send them as soon as possible after we have provided you with
the
mailing address We will give that address when we have all of the above
requested information. This process--although a bit ponderous--is
necessary
to allow us to properly screen the types and quality of books we
receive.

(3) Who will receive the books and how will they be used?
The first shipment of 16,000 books was sent to the National Library in
Kabul, as well as to Kabul University, a children's school in Kabul, and
the
Central Bank Governor at the Banking Institute. Although we have not
made
final arrangements for the second shipment, we expect we will send it to
the
same or similar recipients. We expect that generally the books will be
used
in libraries, for academic study and for professional reference.

(4) Is free shipping available to Books for Freedom through MATS, other
military resources, or any airlines, shipping companies, or trucking
companies?
At this time, Books For Freedom is paying commercial rates to ship its
book donations to Kabul. Packaging and shipping books continues to be
our
single greatest operating expense, and we encourage money donations to
defray
these costs. We are hopeful that we will be able to find a source of
free
(or reduced cost) shipping at some point in the future.

************************************************************************
************

1) Languages


a) 
Native

i) Farsi (the Afghan term for the language is ìDari,î the English is
ìPersianî)

ii) Pashto
iii) Arabic


b) Foreign

i) English

ii) French
iii) German

2) Book Genres


a) 
Professional References & Undergraduate/Graduate School Texts

i) Agriculture (e.g., epidemics, draughts, hydrology, animal husbandry,
planting/harvesting, agronomy, soil and crop science, entomology,
atmospheric science, horticulture, plant pathology)

ii) Architecture


iii) Business (e.g., management, banking, finance/microfinance,
economics, marketing)

iv) Engineering (e.g., civil, electrical, mechanical, industrial,
petroleum, material science)
v) Legal (e.g., criminal law, constitutional law, property, contracts,
procedure)
vi) Medical (e.g., nursing, nutrition, psychology, epidemiology, public
health, pharmacology)
vii) Psychology


b) Childrenís Books

i) 0 to 4 years old (primarily picture books)
ii) 5 to 9 (picture books with some words)

iii) 10 to 16 (books primarily, or only, with words)


c) Literature & Poetry

i) Afghani

ii) American
iii) Arabic
iv) East Asian
v) European (including Russia)
vi) Persian and Central Asia


d) Religious Studies

i) Buddhist

ii) Christian
iii) Hindu
iv) Jewish
v) Muslim
vi) Other


e) Educational Textbooks for Introductory Undergraduate Courses and High
School Classes and Younger

i) biology

ii) chemistry
iii) geography and maps


iv) geology, earth science, and environmental studies

v) foreign language instruction (English/French/German)
vi) history
vii) math
viii) philosophy
ix) physics
x) political science
xi) science, general


xii) womenís studies

xiii) dictionaries
xiv) encyclopedias


f) Magazine & Newspapers

i) Business & Finance
(1) Barronís, Business Week

(2) Forbes
(3) Fortune
(4) Harvard Business Review


ii) News & Current Affairs
(1) Atlantic Monthly

(2) The Economist
(3) Foreign Policy
(4) Herald Tribune
(5) New York Times
(6) New Yorker (magazine)
(7) Newsweek
(8) U.S. News & World Report
(9) Wall Street Journal
(10) Washington Post


iii) Science (* = childrenís publication)
(1) Discover

(2) *Kidís Discover
(3) National Geographic
(4) *National Geographic WORLD
(5) Natural History
(6) Popular Mechanics
(7) Popular Science
(8) *Ranger Rick


g) Crafts Guides

i) metalwork

ii) painting
iii) pottery
iv) sewing, knitting, seamstressing, weaving
v) woodwork


h) How-to Manuals (for non-professional readers)

i) business start-ups

ii) infant care
iii) mines (recognizing mines, demining)
iv) nutrition
v) planting
vi) pregnancy and post-partem bleeding

3) Miscellaneous


a) Professional Journals
. Professional journals, in any of the above areas, are also acceptable.

b) Critical Concerns. The critical concerns in Afghanistan are the
following:


i) Agriculture

ii) Education
iii) Finance & Microfinance
iv) Health & Safety
v) Infrastructure Rebuilding


c) Cultural Sensitivity. For all books, we must be culturally sensitive
about not imposing Western culture; in particular, we should be
sensitive about imposing more racy, contemporary Western culture (and
this should probably be judged with a conservative eye).

d) General Advice. BFF is collecting books for a population which mostly
speaks only native languages and confronts daily challenges of survival,
but it is also in the process of educating itself, developing
sustainable skills and resources, and rebuilding basic infrastructure.
Additionally, there are also some educated, English-speaking, better-off
Afghanis who require more specialized sources for overall governance and
rebuilding of a civil society.

'Those who wish to sing always find a song.' (Swedish proverb)



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