Quality children's books for 39 schools
Published on: Monday, August 03, 2015
Penampang: Pupils from 39 schools in the State will be able to enjoy high-quality children's books, thanks to a joint effort by Partners of Community Organisation (Pacos Trust) and Asia Foundation via the "Books for Asia" project. "We discovered that there was a lack of reading materials for children in rural areas, as well in the city outskirts," said Pacos Trust Executive Director Anne Lasimbang during the distribution of books ceremony held at Pacos Trust office here, Saturday. She said a total of 28,000 books have been distributed in three batches since Pacos made the partnership with Asia Foundation in 2011.
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"Books of various levels were distributed to Maktab Gaya, Universiti Malaysia Sabah and the State library. We have also sent books to Kudat, Keningau and Tambunan. "Today, we are into our fourth batch where a total of 3,087 books of kindergarten and primary school level will be distributed for the first time," she said.Prior to that, Asia Foundation also distributed books to 25 schools in Tawau during a ceremony attended by Deputy Minister of Higher Education Datuk Mary Yap on Friday."We can inculcate children's interest in reading by surrounding them with books. However, based on my experience in villages, books, especially those of quality, are very expensive and for families who cannot afford, buying books would be the last on their lists of things to buy.
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"I hope this batch of books will be useful for our children," she said. The ceremony was officiated by Germaine Marcella who represented District Education Officer Mojuntin Ebin and was also attended by Asia Foundation's Malaysia representative Herizal Hazri, Pacos Trust "Books for Asia" Technical Adviser Helen Morgan, as well as teachers and headmasters from the schools.
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Herizal explained that Asia Foundation is an international non-governmental organisation based in the United States with 17 office representatives in Asia. "Among the first opened in Asia was in Kuala Lumpur in 1953, where Asia Foundation started several programmes in identifying and understanding the community development needs in the peninsula at that time."Prompted by encouraging support from the community, we opened the second office in Kota Kinabalu, then known as Jesselton in 1956, followed by the third office in Singapore in 1960," he said. He said due to change in technology with Internet and easy travelling via air, they only have one existing office in Kuala Lumpur. "Our first programme introduced in the peninsula as well as in Sabah is the 'Books for Asia' project which aims to provide reading materials for children and to encourage reading among children," he said. Meanwhile, Marcella expressed gratitude to Pacos Trust and Asia Foundation for a job well done. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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