Recently we had a very interesting email from a teacher in Seattle who is a librarian at her school. She would like to donate some books to a school in South Africa and also set up a Skype collaboration with a teacher at this school. Here is an extract from the email… 

“We have 5-6 boxes of brand new paperback picture and chapter books sitting in our school that are not being used. I have a dream of putting them in the hands of an impoverished school where need a library or need books. I’d love to hook up with a school and begin a Skype collaboration if possible. We could make videos of the books or introduce ourselves with our school. Somehow I’d like to bring technology, books, global collaboration together in a project that helps children who need the help.

The stereotype of country African schools are ones of extreme need. I don’t really know if this is true or not. People think we all drive expensive cars and have all things perfect here in the States. Neither myths are true!

I have seen websites of helping African villages with books, but I am very wary of them due to the administrative costs, etc. I’m more interested in doing something small, but that has real impact. Is there a place for this kind of idea? Do you know people I could contact to start? Is this something you might be interested in?” 

If you know of a school where this would go down well, please contact fiona@schoolnet.org.za

If you would like to read this teacher’s blog, here is the URL: http://bellbulldogreaders.edublogs.org/  This blog came second in the 2011 Edublogs Awards.