VISION
The vision of The World is Just a Book Away: A world in which all children have access to books, a quality education, and hope for the future.
MISSION
The World Is Just a Book Away is founded on the core belief that education breaks the cycle of poverty and promotes peace around the world. We provide children with hope through books and education in our libraries and reading rooms, empowering them to change their own lives and the world at large. We work in developing counties where we can make a major impact and where children can also leverage their knowledge by partnering with local communities to better the lives of their fellow citizens.
HISTORY
The World is Just a Book Away was launched in October, 2008 by James J. Owens, a professor at the University of Southern California, to bring books and education to children in developing countries. This project, based on his own love or books, reading, and learning, was launched to help combat the overwhelming-and growing-need to educate the world's children.
The organization quickly expanded to include more professionals and students on its Advisory Board, Board, and Ambassadors, and Partners, whose expertise ranges from education and technology, to finance and strategy. Through the hard work of our team and through the generosity of our many donors--in our first full year of operation--we are on target to build more than 20 libraries in 2009, benefitting more than 5,000 students in grades 1-6, who have never had access to the knowledge to be gained through the diverse topics in books available in a lending library.
Strategically, we decided from the start to make a deep impact in a specific community, by building sustainable libraries and programs, rather than trying to assist children in many countries simultaneously. Therefore, although our long-term focus includes international expansion to other developing countries, we have chosen to start in Sidoarjo, Indonesia-a region on the island of Java that has been devistated by a mudflow disaster that has displaced more than 60,000 people and resulted in the hospitalization of at least 40,000 others.
To learn more about why we chose to help the children of Sidoarjo, please click here: Why the Children of Sidoarjo Need Our Help.
RESULTS
The World is Just a Book Away is dedicated to achieving results. Although we set very ambitious goals in 2009, we are already on target to meet and exceed those goals. Our libraries are not just lending libraries (a service these children had no access to), they are also bright, clean and safe places for the children to read that are attached to schools that are otherwise frequently crumbling and decayed.
The children at primary schools in the Porong and Tanggulanging districts of Sidoarjo in Eastern Java, Indonesia-those most affected by the mudflow disaster-will benefit from projects sponsored by The World is Just a Book Away in 2009.
Children: 2,295 children have access to libraries and books in June 2009.
9,000+ children have access to libraries and books in December 2009.
9,000+ children will have access to books through our libraries and mobile library by the end of 2009.
Libraries: 10 libraries launched on June 3rd and 4th 2009.
20 libraries launched by December 20, 2009.
1 mobile library launched in 2009.
Books: 6,000+ books will be available to children in June 2009.
20,000+ books will be available to children through The World is Just a Book Away Libraries and lending libraries at 43 primary schools in 2009.
To learn more about our specific projects in Sidoarjo, Indonesia and to view photographs posted daily as the libraries are built, please click here: The World is Just a Book Away Projects.
MAXIMIZING DONATIONS
In order to minimize our overhead costs and maximize the impact of all donations, The World is Just a Book Away partnered with Give2Asia, an international non-profit, based in the United States, that manages all logistics for growing non-profits, such as The World is Just a Book Away, including compliance with the legal, fiduciary, and strict accounting codes required by the US government. This helps us to ensure that more than 90% of all donations are directly spent on projects benefiting the children.
Donations are made through our fund at www.give2asia.org/wijaba.
WHY THE CHILDREN OF SIDOARJO NEED HELP
Children around the world are in desperate need of help and education, so that they can develop into adults who are self-sufficient and who can affect change in their own communities. Help is need for hundreds of millions of children in scores of countries. In the midst of many crises in the world, the children of Sidoarjo, Indonesia have not received the attention and assistance they deserve given the scope of the catastrophe suffered by them and their families.
WHY IS HELP NEEDED?
Hundreds of millions of people around the world are illiterate or functionally illiterate. Billions of children have access to what can only be deemed substandard education, often in overcrowded facilities that are old, dilapidated, and unsafe, with little to no resources. Having a book-just one book-to take home at night and read is a dream almost beyond their imagination. Yet these same children have a thirst for knowledge that, if quenched, opens a world of possibilities. And we all have an ability to provide them with the books and the schools to open their worlds.
At The World is Just a Book Away, we believe that anything is possible-even the seemingly impossible. We believe that every child has a right to dream, every child has a right to education, and every child has a right to a bright future. What's more, we believe that bright future can be attained through education.
Such overwhelming statistics raise a fundamental question-where and how can we start to solve the problem? For The World is Just a Book Away, the answer to that question is to start in a region where we can make a big impact and where the local children can also "pay it forward" by helping their local communities. That region is Sidoarjo, on the island of Java, in Indonesia.
WHY SIDOARJO, INDONESIA?
In 2006, volcanic mud (200 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter) erupted from the earth in parts of Sidoarjo, Indonesia. Since then, the mud has been contained behind enormous dams. But, according to a recent article in the International Herald Tribune, more than 60,000 people have been displaced with little to no compensation and more than 40,000 people have been admitted to hospitals and clinics with respiratory problems. In spite of the gravity of this situation, the disaster in Sidoarjo has received relatively little press coverage. People fled their homes with nothing but their lives-others, not as lucky, perishing in the mud. This mud, dubbed "Lake Lusi" from the Indonesian word for mud and the first initials of the region-is now contained behind massive dams. But, it cannot be stopped. In fact, many of the world's best geologists and engineers who have studied the problem predict that the mud will continue to surface for more than 100 years to come.
The people lost their land, their homes, their possessions and, more often than not, their livelihoods: all of it buried beneath a lake of boiling mud. Many schools also disappeared, creating a crisis of education. The schools that survived are now overcrowded, overwhelmed and even dilapidated beyond repair. Many children have no school books; others share their school books with two or three classmates, doing their homework when time permits. The concept of a lending library that allows children to take home books to read is alien.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Book by book, library by library, school by school, and child by child, we can rebuild hope for the children of Sidoarjo.
CAN'T WE DO MORE?
2009 is just the beginning for The World is Just a Book Away. Sidoarjo is also just the beginning. But to the children of Sidoarjo, the children whose lives you will forever change with your donation, it is not just a beginning. It is the beginning of a journey in a life of self-sufficiency and pride.
For more information please contact us at info@justabookaway.org.
The vision of The World is Just a Book Away: A world in which all children have access to books, a quality education, and hope for the future.
MISSION
The World Is Just a Book Away is founded on the core belief that education breaks the cycle of poverty and promotes peace around the world. We provide children with hope through books and education in our libraries and reading rooms, empowering them to change their own lives and the world at large. We work in developing counties where we can make a major impact and where children can also leverage their knowledge by partnering with local communities to better the lives of their fellow citizens.
HISTORY
The World is Just a Book Away was launched in October, 2008 by James J. Owens, a professor at the University of Southern California, to bring books and education to children in developing countries. This project, based on his own love or books, reading, and learning, was launched to help combat the overwhelming-and growing-need to educate the world's children.
The organization quickly expanded to include more professionals and students on its Advisory Board, Board, and Ambassadors, and Partners, whose expertise ranges from education and technology, to finance and strategy. Through the hard work of our team and through the generosity of our many donors--in our first full year of operation--we are on target to build more than 20 libraries in 2009, benefitting more than 5,000 students in grades 1-6, who have never had access to the knowledge to be gained through the diverse topics in books available in a lending library.
Strategically, we decided from the start to make a deep impact in a specific community, by building sustainable libraries and programs, rather than trying to assist children in many countries simultaneously. Therefore, although our long-term focus includes international expansion to other developing countries, we have chosen to start in Sidoarjo, Indonesia-a region on the island of Java that has been devistated by a mudflow disaster that has displaced more than 60,000 people and resulted in the hospitalization of at least 40,000 others.
To learn more about why we chose to help the children of Sidoarjo, please click here: Why the Children of Sidoarjo Need Our Help.
RESULTS
The World is Just a Book Away is dedicated to achieving results. Although we set very ambitious goals in 2009, we are already on target to meet and exceed those goals. Our libraries are not just lending libraries (a service these children had no access to), they are also bright, clean and safe places for the children to read that are attached to schools that are otherwise frequently crumbling and decayed.
The children at primary schools in the Porong and Tanggulanging districts of Sidoarjo in Eastern Java, Indonesia-those most affected by the mudflow disaster-will benefit from projects sponsored by The World is Just a Book Away in 2009.
Children: 2,295 children have access to libraries and books in June 2009.
9,000+ children have access to libraries and books in December 2009.
9,000+ children will have access to books through our libraries and mobile library by the end of 2009.
Libraries: 10 libraries launched on June 3rd and 4th 2009.
20 libraries launched by December 20, 2009.
1 mobile library launched in 2009.
Books: 6,000+ books will be available to children in June 2009.
20,000+ books will be available to children through The World is Just a Book Away Libraries and lending libraries at 43 primary schools in 2009.
To learn more about our specific projects in Sidoarjo, Indonesia and to view photographs posted daily as the libraries are built, please click here: The World is Just a Book Away Projects.
MAXIMIZING DONATIONS
In order to minimize our overhead costs and maximize the impact of all donations, The World is Just a Book Away partnered with Give2Asia, an international non-profit, based in the United States, that manages all logistics for growing non-profits, such as The World is Just a Book Away, including compliance with the legal, fiduciary, and strict accounting codes required by the US government. This helps us to ensure that more than 90% of all donations are directly spent on projects benefiting the children.
Donations are made through our fund at www.give2asia.org/wijaba.
WHY THE CHILDREN OF SIDOARJO NEED HELP
Children around the world are in desperate need of help and education, so that they can develop into adults who are self-sufficient and who can affect change in their own communities. Help is need for hundreds of millions of children in scores of countries. In the midst of many crises in the world, the children of Sidoarjo, Indonesia have not received the attention and assistance they deserve given the scope of the catastrophe suffered by them and their families.
WHY IS HELP NEEDED?
Hundreds of millions of people around the world are illiterate or functionally illiterate. Billions of children have access to what can only be deemed substandard education, often in overcrowded facilities that are old, dilapidated, and unsafe, with little to no resources. Having a book-just one book-to take home at night and read is a dream almost beyond their imagination. Yet these same children have a thirst for knowledge that, if quenched, opens a world of possibilities. And we all have an ability to provide them with the books and the schools to open their worlds.
At The World is Just a Book Away, we believe that anything is possible-even the seemingly impossible. We believe that every child has a right to dream, every child has a right to education, and every child has a right to a bright future. What's more, we believe that bright future can be attained through education.
Such overwhelming statistics raise a fundamental question-where and how can we start to solve the problem? For The World is Just a Book Away, the answer to that question is to start in a region where we can make a big impact and where the local children can also "pay it forward" by helping their local communities. That region is Sidoarjo, on the island of Java, in Indonesia.
WHY SIDOARJO, INDONESIA?
In 2006, volcanic mud (200 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter) erupted from the earth in parts of Sidoarjo, Indonesia. Since then, the mud has been contained behind enormous dams. But, according to a recent article in the International Herald Tribune, more than 60,000 people have been displaced with little to no compensation and more than 40,000 people have been admitted to hospitals and clinics with respiratory problems. In spite of the gravity of this situation, the disaster in Sidoarjo has received relatively little press coverage. People fled their homes with nothing but their lives-others, not as lucky, perishing in the mud. This mud, dubbed "Lake Lusi" from the Indonesian word for mud and the first initials of the region-is now contained behind massive dams. But, it cannot be stopped. In fact, many of the world's best geologists and engineers who have studied the problem predict that the mud will continue to surface for more than 100 years to come.
The people lost their land, their homes, their possessions and, more often than not, their livelihoods: all of it buried beneath a lake of boiling mud. Many schools also disappeared, creating a crisis of education. The schools that survived are now overcrowded, overwhelmed and even dilapidated beyond repair. Many children have no school books; others share their school books with two or three classmates, doing their homework when time permits. The concept of a lending library that allows children to take home books to read is alien.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Book by book, library by library, school by school, and child by child, we can rebuild hope for the children of Sidoarjo.
CAN'T WE DO MORE?
2009 is just the beginning for The World is Just a Book Away. Sidoarjo is also just the beginning. But to the children of Sidoarjo, the children whose lives you will forever change with your donation, it is not just a beginning. It is the beginning of a journey in a life of self-sufficiency and pride.
For more information please contact us at info@justabookaway.org.
