The Rotary Club of Barbados West donated approximately 1300 books valued at over BDS $40,000 to four recipients as part of the International Literacy Day celebration on September 8th.
The books will be donated to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Paediatric Unit, the Good Shepherd Primary, St James Primary and Eagle Hall Primary Schools and consists of a variety of genres and subject areas: fiction and non-fiction making them suitable for children from ages four to twelve.
President Gale Reeves was part of the group making the donation and indicated that the donation fell in line with the club’s strategic objectives of strengthening the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education and increase adult literacy.
“Understanding that all children do not have equal access to books, it is our hope that these donations will help to ensure wider access, bring joy and fulfilment, encourage and nurture their imagination and creativity and foster a love of reading in our schools and the wider community,” Reeves said.
She continued saying “This donation is the beginning of a larger donation to additional primary and secondary schools across Barbados with distribution scheduled to continue throughout the month of September. It is our hope that the donated books will enrich and enhance general school libraries as well as individual classroom libraries.”
The Club anticipates donating approximately 10,000 children’s books to multiple schools island wide in the nearby future.
