I my reading Laura Bush's book " Spoken from the Heart", which as usual has allowed me to understand a tiny bit of many topics touch by her. Several things I like very much and find interesting are:
- Her closeness with her parents.
- Even though, I was not schooled in Library Science, I share the same passion for books.
- The more I got deeper into the book, I read numerous places where she talked about education, about literacy for both girls and boys, about her work in promoting reading habits, about women's rights and equality.
- I like the public work she did in garnering people and information to help the disadvantage young children and women in education and health.
In Monrovia, Liberia, there is a need to help combat illiteracy. Mrs. Bush mentioned that "those who can not read are limited to the most menial jobs, and they cannot even follow simple directions to take lifesaving medication or to minister it to their children".
The statistics from UNESCO about illiteracy are staggering - "almost three-quarters of a billion adults in the world cannot read or write; two-thirds of the illiterate are women". What can we do Liberians? I am sure that we are in the stats.
A fundemental program we can bring to any one small community in Liberia is the establishment of libraries. Every time I am in a library in Olathe or Overland Park, I am moved by what I see and find in the library - the rows and rows of books, the multimedia, the people who help, and the many uses of the library! Each time, I say to myself this can be done in Liberia, any place and we, the founders of Children LifeTime Educational Foundation, have chosen Barnersville Estate, working with the Zoe-Louise Prepartory School to help combat illiteracy.
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