Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Starting a Library

Hello Everyone,

I am currently starting a library with my counterpart at the center I am working at. We have a few shelves of books however they are a couple small shelves and used by the day care. Below is my book request letter. If you are at all interested in helping or have suggestions please send me a note at the end of the blog. Have a wonderful day!!!

Dear Sir/Ma’am,

Good day! I am a volunteer from the DSWD Reception and Studies Center for Children (RSCC) in Lubao, Pampanga here in the Philippines. I work with staff at my center to improve the lives of the children at the center through education, life skills and self esteem activities. I also do this through training staff to improve service delivery. Currently, all school age children attend the local school are currently behind at least one grade level. This is due to them coming to us without attending formal education and the lack of resources available to them. Our children are bright but need additional materials. The majority of our children are in elementary school with a few in middle school and one in high school. At this time we are working to create a library/resource room for the 97 children residing at this center. We have a building and are fixing it up by: painting the room, adding screens and fans, making book shelves, with tables and chairs to create our library and resource room.

This room will also serve as a place for us to do staff trainings and a resource room to staff. We have started a small staff library with educational and training materials, manuals and texts for them to improve their skills as service providers. This room will be used by the entire RSCC community.

With this wonderful addition to our center the daycare worker and I are have developed a basic English tutorial program and reading program based on a reading program developed by a fellow Peace Corps volunteer. We are very excited to get our program off the ground this summer with our children. We have 2 additional staff from the center with teaching degrees to assist with the implementation of the program.

To make this library/resource room and English program a success we need your help. Currently, we have requested through various teachers and community members is to hold book drives for us to collect as much of the following material: Easy reader books (reading level books) and mini-books for young readers and story books. Specifically we need literature, fiction and non-fiction books for K-9th grade students. English grammar, math and science texts for children in 1st through 6th grade (5 copies of each) would be extremely helpful. Other resources we could use are flash cards, workbooks, atlas and map books, picture books, educational posters, dictionaries, school supplies, educational materials on CD or DVD, books on working with kids (counseling, developmental delays, child development, etc.) teaching strategy manuals for teachers in: English, math and science, an encyclopedia set or Childcraft.

The literature and fiction books will be used in our reading program and the text books will be used in our after school and weekend programs that the house parents coordinate.

We at the RSCC truly appreciate any support you could give us to develop our program to its fullest potential. Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Katherine Pentz
Peace Corps volunteer RSCC

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are used books okay, like books withdrawn from a library?

Kate Pentz said...

Yes any books (used or new) are great. The books are meant for children so as long as they stay in that catagory we have no limitations. Thanks for asking!!!

Anonymous said...

Do you have an email add that I can use to correspond with you regarding these books? Are you familiar with balikbayan box? -don

Anonymous said...

I tried sending you an email and it bounced. Is it misspelled?

Kate Pentz said...

Sorry for the mistake in spelling of my e-mail addy. It is katiepentz@hotmail.com