Young volunteers with the Charity Bookshelf

9th grade volunteer group of Saigon Practical High School

Located in a quiet alley, the book warehouse belongs to Nhan Ai Bookcase Company Limited, the social enterprise behind the Nhan Ai Bookcase and Wisdom House programs since its official establishment in 2018.

Despite its simple appearance, the book warehouse is in fact both an office and a gathering point for all book sources used for all projects of the Humanitarian Bookcase and Wisdom House programs across the country.

Learn a lot from volunteering... to bind books

Upon arrival, as usual, the students of Saigon Practical High School quickly greeted the warehouse manager, Mr. Huynh Thanh Phong, and waited to be assigned work. Once they understood what needed to be done, they quickly assigned each other specific tasks and immediately got to work.

The job of volunteers like you is to help the office staff sort, pack, and arrange books. There is never a shortage of work to do in the book warehouse because Nhan Ai Bookcase Company Limited always maintains an abundant supply of books in the warehouse.

Bin the books

According to Mr. Phong, the book categories in the warehouse often include content on skill development, science , career guidance, thinking development, cultivating the will to strive, improving skills, philosophy of life, cultivating seeds of the soul...

Rich and diverse book content is also the strategy of the Humanity Bookcase program. This ensures that each mini “bookcase” when coming to remote classrooms must have a variety of books, containing between 40 and 60 books.

So, thanks to the bookbinding, the students learned that there were many categories of books that they had never been exposed to before. While working, if a student discovered an interesting book, the whole group would sit together for 5-10 minutes to read and discuss it on the spot.

Rekindle interest in reading

After finishing packing and packing the books into boxes, the children were all happy to receive a thank you message from the sponsor for the book donation that day. And when leaving, each child chose to buy a good book that they had just discovered while working. The warehouse always has "unique" books and is ready to sell to schools at good prices.

The finished product after each working session is a mini 'library' ready to reach readers in remote areas.

Nguyen Hao Nhien, a 9th grade student at Saigon Practical High School, said he learned about the volunteer program of the Humanity Bookcase and the House of Wisdom through his mother, and immediately came up with the idea of ​​forming a group with his close friends. After convincing their parents to support them, they took advantage of the day off to go to the bookstore.

“This is a valuable experience for me because I get to read good books and at the same time support the staff at the book warehouse by packaging and delivering knowledge-filled books to students in need,” Hao Nhien shared.

A group member, Nguyen Minh Huy, said that besides stacking and binding books, he really enjoys the feeling of touching brand new books with the fragrant smell of paper, something that online books can never replace.

According to Nguyen Thanh Lam, in addition to contributing to the community and relieving stress when working side by side with his friends, he is especially diligent in searching for rare books in the warehouse to buy. The books students buy here are all with their own savings.

Mr. Tran Dinh Thai, parent of Tran Dinh Dang Thuc, strongly supports his son in participating in volunteer activities of the Humanitarian Bookcase program. Despite his busy school schedule due to being a transition year, Thuc is always present in each bookbinding session. “The program also helps my son remember and return to the feeling of enjoying reading like in primary school,” he said.

Books members choose to buy in one visit to the warehouse

Bridging and spreading knowledge

Responding to Thanh Nien Newspaper reporters, Mr. Tran Thanh Hoai, Deputy Director of Nhan Ai Bookcase Company Limited, said that students from Saigon Practical High School are one of many groups of volunteers actively contributing to the success of Nhan Ai Bookcase and Wisdom House.

According to Mr. Hoai, the children, despite their young age, have participated in community activities to contribute to positive changes for society, bringing good books to readers in remote, rural, and border areas.

Through these activities, the students themselves also gain maturity in their thinking and attitude towards life compared to their peers. “The teachers are very happy to observe the joyful working hours, but no less diligent, meticulous and thoughtful of the students of Saigon Practical High School. These are the proofs of the quality of education that the family and school have created for the students,” he commented.

Regarding the program's activities in 2023, Mr. Hoai admitted that the difficult economic situation has led to limited resources from the community and businesses. However, new Wisdom Houses continue to spring up everywhere, and bookshelves are still regularly delivered to readers across the province.

Mr. Tran Thanh Hoai (second from right), Deputy Director of Nhan Ai Bookcase Company Limited, with students

This shows that the program has received support from the community. Currently, many local leaders, business owners and philanthropists no longer "sit and wait" for the program to call for donations. After a period of participation, they have called on their local staff to join in organizing book donation activities, promoting reading and learning in provinces and cities, and the Humanity Bookcase - Wisdom House participates as a professional consultant, supporting part of the resources.

In just two months of September and October, Mr. Nguyen Quang Phuong, Chairman of the People's Committee of Vinh Cuu district (Dong Nai province), personally called on businesses in the district to donate 9 school libraries and many Wisdom House libraries in the district.

In particular, 2023 marks a turning point for the Compassionate Bookcase and Wisdom House programs. On October 18, the program was honored by the US Library of Congress in the category of Outstanding Practice in the Literacy - Knowledge Dissemination Award.

With the recognition of the world's largest library, the program operators took this opportunity to proactively connect and exchange with universities and major educational organizations in the US. Mr. Hoai expects that in the near future, the Humanity Bookcase and Wisdom House programs will have more cooperation and exchange activities on lifelong learning, English exchange, and book sharing with schools, experts, and lecturers from the world's number one education system.

Free and lifelong learning opportunities

Nhan Ai Bookcase Company Limited is a social enterprise established in 2018, from the urgent need to have a professional and appropriately sized organization to operate the two programs Nhan Ai Bookcase and Wisdom House, which have been operating since 2017. Currently, after 7 years, Nhan Ai Bookcase has donated 20,090 bookcases (more than 1.1 million books) to more than 3,000 schools and communities in 60 provinces and cities in Vietnam and Savannakhet province (Laos), bringing quality reading opportunities to more than 2 million readers of all ages. Wisdom House has built a network of 168 facilities in 12 provinces and cities in Vietnam and 5 other countries in the world including: Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the US. These are large lifelong learning communities and are completely free for everyone.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/nhung-tinh-nguyen-vien-nho-tuoi-voi-tu-sach-nhan-ai-185231108131443646.htm