BOOK DRIVE PROGRESS UPDATES

2004

Zayed University kindly donated approximately 8,500 books (more than 5 metric tonnes) for distribution to needy universities via the TESOL Arabia Book Drive.

Kathy Bird (English Language Center, Zayed University) and Paul de Jong (instructor at UAE University) organized the distribution of these books.

The first assignment, of approximately 1,000 books, was boxed and taken to Kabul University, Afghanistan by Paul in December, 2003. Grateful thanks must be extended to the Sharjah manager of Ariana Airlines, Mr. Haji Daud Khan, who sponsored Paul’s 500 kg of excess baggage.

Several weekends ago Kathy Bird, Tony Hobbs, Paul de Jong, Mahamood Challakara and five of his workers spent over seven hours dusting off and re-boxing thousands of books into 164 boxes which had an average weight of 32 kgs. The following day was a very painful day of muscles, infrequently used, screaming at the abuse!!!

On Wednesday 12 May, Kathy, Mahamood, Paul, and several maintenance workers labeled and divided the boxes into two consignments, either for Basrah University, Iraq, or for The British Council, Khartoum, Sudan.

The shipment to Sudan will be distributed among several university language teaching departments. It was arranged with the help of Khalid Abdulla at the Dubai British Council and with Mr. Hatim and Mr. Abdul Monim of Al Suweidi Cargo and Travel Company in Dubai. Still, the books had to get to the cargo office. Zayed University came to the rescue, and Zayed University freed up a driver, Mr. Ather Siddique, to deliver the books to the cargo company on Thursday morning 20 May.

Kathy found a generous sponsor, Dr Mohammed Hamdan Al Shamsi of Thuraya Marine Shipping services, who very kindly sent his own truck to Zayed University to collect the 82 boxes for Basrah University on the same Thursday morning. Dr Hamdan is arranging for these books to be delivered to Mr Adil Hameed Raheem, Deputy Director, Cultural and Public Relations and Information Department, College of Arts, Basrah University.

A huge thank you to Zayed University, the sponsors of the deliveries and the volunteers who gave so many hours to help making learning English language a bit easier in countries that do not have such good facilities as we have here.

2005

Riddle: What’s brown, dusty, and a bit tatty, but loaded with treasure?
Answer: A box full of donated textbooks for teachers in Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan!

A big thank you!
By now, the number of donated boxes is more than 330! The conference in Dubai got the ball rolling with 53 boxes collected on site. Since then, Zayed University in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the Higher Colleges in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, the Ministry of Education, the University of Sharjah,the Dubai University College, and several individuals have donated an additional 280 plus boxes. Most of these are used student ELT textbooks. The Sharjah Women’s campus has just completed a campus wide book drive and brought in almost 30 boxes of books. In short, many teachers, administrators, and campus staff have pitched in to make this year’s book drive a huge success — a big thank you to all!

The institutions that will receive these books are, of course, also very grateful for the generosity of teachers and institutions that have contributed to the book drive. We plan to follow up with these universities to find out where the books end up and how they are used.