If this huge number of books can be shared with other villages in the region, these other villages can also be asked to share the freight expenses. This will reduce the burden of total freight expenses to be borne by only one village.

The post above mentions $12,400 and also $17,000 - which is the correct figure?

It would have been a good option to organize donations of computers, instead of paper books, since thousands of free e-books can be downloaded on these computers and this will benefit a much larger population than many containers of paper books.

Vijai

Thank you Vihai,
Buterere FACILITATOR is right! The total amount of money needed is 17.000 USD. But there are already collected money 4600 USD. So we still need $12,400,So the correct figure to collect is: 12,400 USD.

The ideas to share the huge of books with other village is better. We have planned to set up a central library for higher school.If the communities need to collaborate on "BURUNDI LIBRARY RESSOURCE CENTRE", there is a possibility that schools, CBO and others which may be interested can join and organise shipment so that their students (school) can profit from this rebrary's programs...

This is great, Jean-Claude !

For the other villages to participate, you will also need to contact them directly, since all of them may not read your message on this thread. You could directly contact about a hundred villages, presuming that only 5 or 10 of these villages will respond positively. You can give them about one weeks' time to reply.

Through this method, within about 10-15 days you will be able to finalize the list of participating schools who can share the amount for shipping the container of books.

Vijai

Thanks alot,
The facilitator is working on doing this, and we will keep eyes widely opened.

Thanks alot !

Jean-Claude,

To increase the interest among the participating schools, you must provide a list of books which are to be shipped in the container. The books could be of various kinds, and meant for different age groups. This will also help the schools decide the extent of their participation - some schools may like to participate only by 5%, whereas others may like to participate on a larger scale.

In case participation is equal by all schools, and assuming 17 schools participate - so each school will be required to contribute only $1000, for a total of $17,000 freight charges.

Hence, from your village, after contributing your share of $1000, you will be able to save $3600 out of the available $4600.

This $3600 can be spent on other urgent activities for the village, so that the need for donations for these activities will not arise. $3600 is a good deal of money and a lot of urgent needs can be met in this amount.

Vijai

Great Vijai,

Your contributions are most helpful. I will post a document about the donated materials. But the most urgent action to be achieved is to find 17 SCHOOLS. We have to determine the levels of these schools (PRIMARY, SECONDARY, UNIVERSITIES, ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS?). Currently my pacilitator is in VOCATION, and will be come back next week. We will continue to share with neighbours. This would be a best way to DEVELOP A PARTNERSHIP WITH SCHOOLS IN BURUNDI, UGANDA, TANZANIA, KENYA, RDC, RWANDA??? (if we met them.)

This has been an excellent suggestion, Vijai! Thank you very much!

I have now posted a task for our neighbours to help identify other organizations, schools, etc who might be interested in this 'share' concept.

--
Anna Soper

Please see the attached document which is a list of the books ordered from Books for Africa.

Keep in mind, we are hoping to work with other communities in Burundi to share the cost of shipment, thus sharing the contents of the container. We need YOUR help to find these other schools.

Thanks neighbours!

--
Anna Soper

Book_requested[1].rtf

Hi Anna,

The document attached with your post above indicates the following as the total contents of the consignment:

"Requested don Total: 21850 Books + 4 assets of encyclopedias + 50 Computers"

The inclusion of 4 sets of encylopedias and 50 computers might generate greater interest among schools in the region to share the shipping expenses for the container - provided of course, that these are also to be shared with the other schools.

About locating other schools to share the shipping expenses - neighbours on nabuur may not be able to help with locating schools in the Burundi region, unless all these schools in Burundi happen to be on nabuur themselves, or appear in a google search, which is quite unlikely. A good option would be for someone at the village to do a physical check in the Burundi region, make a list of all existing schools, contact and write to each school, and followup with each school directly up to the point where each school either participates or refuses to participate. Many schools may need to raise funds themselves to participate in the cost-sharing, and so the time-frame needs to be tightly controlled from the start. This part may have to be done on the ground in the Burundi region, and outside of the nabuur platform.

Vijai

I think you have a big task ahead of you raising the money even if you partner with other schools. I have posted a link to some potential funders under the relevant task which you are welcome to check out. I wonder whether, if you are able to raise that amount of money, it would be better spent on other projects, but that is for you to decide of course.

Books For Africa http://www.booksforafrica.org/

It does not say on their site, but as they are based in the USA, I am assuming that the majority of the books they send will be in English? Is this the language used in schools in Burundi, or are students taught in French? If you use French, a container load of English-language books may not be much good to you and other schools in the area.

Does the $12,000 you are attempting to raise also include the cost of the 50 computers you are requesting? If you are going for Pentium 4s thats US$160x50 = US$8000 for the computers.

Mary

About computers - from what I can understand from the file attached to Anna's post above, the computers are also packed in the same container as the books. The cost of shipping the container is $12,400. It seems the computers are also donated, in addition to the books. At least this is the impression I get, since the issue mentioned by the village so far has been only about shipping charges for the container.

Vijai

Further to my post above, I think it would be worthwhile to also examine if the current laws in US allow donations of used computers to locations outside the US.

Vijai

Dear Mary, vijai, and others,

Thank you for your better exchange.
BUTERERE community has more than 20 volunteer at the site available, icluding professors who are teaching in various universities in Burundi, I will share this idea and they will help us to find the right contacts of Schools in Burundi. I think it will be a way to partner with secondary and university schools.

Dear Mary thank you for posting the useful links. The facilitator will view them and she will see what to do. If we obtain a best result from it, I or facilitator will post a " thank you message" here to notice our neighours.

About the donated Books "ENGLISH or FRENCH": The facilitator has posted a document of recommanded books, including french, and english. FURTHERMORE, Burundi has integrated into EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY since the 1st of July 2009, so Burundians don't have no choice of learning learning english or not, they must.

Then, since 2005, Burundi government with Ministry of Education have improved education systems, ENGLISH IS BEING TEACHED FROM PRIMARY to university level, before it was starting in secondary school (post-secondary college level).

Raising money: the total money needed are: 17.000 USD, but we have raised 4600 USD, you can visit the web site for further information on library project "Books": www.healthwelfarework.org