Donation Update: Room to Read's library in Nepal is now complete! Pictures inside.

As some of you may recall, a little less than a year ago we donated $19,000 to help Room to Read build a library in Nepal.  Today, I received the final completion report for our project, a freestanding library for the Shree Janajagriti Primary School in Vhingri. 


The newly constructed library building.

A government school serving children from poor families cast to the margins of society, Shree Janajagriti has long sought to establish a substantial library for its students.  Until now, their ambition has proven cost prohibitive.  We, along with Room to Read, provided just over 85% of the resources needed to finance the library.  As with all Room to Read projects, the local community shares in construction costs to help ensure that community members have a true sense of investment in and ownership of the completed facility.  The community provided nearly 15% of the total project cost, a sacrifice that, proportionally speaking, is far more meaningful than ours. 

Shree Janajagriti Primary School is small by our standards:  the schoolhouse consists of seven rooms, six of them classrooms.  Currently, it employs 5 teachers and enrolls 114 students.  For them, a library stocked with 800 books represents a tremendous addition.  Each grade now enjoys a full 45 minute period of library time, one of which you'll see pictures of below.

No words prove more sufficient in describing the impact of this effort than those of third-grader Hema Khatri.  "I love going to the new library," she says, "and reading all of the colorful storybooks." 









The library's dedication plaque.  Don't give me any grief over the typos.  Their acknowledgment of our contribution was unnecessary and their willingness to allow us the opportunity to select the dedication language was very generous.  If one mistake had to be made during the course of the library construction, I'm glad it only affected the English language version of our dedication.


Thanks, as always, for your support of the NikeTalk community.  You are the ones who make these donations possible through your visits and your support of the site's advertising. 

We loved supporting this project and look forward to our next opportunity to contribute to Room to Read.  If this library inspires you, please consider visiting them at www.roomtoread.org to find out how you can help.