PEL Library: Learning by Doing

GIVE A BOOK TO INDONESIA: Pages to Grow

Indonesia Week 2009 has come and gone. It was another wonderful experience for both teachers and students. We were able to experience dance, music, art, food, and crafts of this diverse archipelago. Thank you Lanny Jizhar!
This Indonesia Week was especially busy in the PEL Library. On Thursday and Friday the children were able to buy books in Bahasa Indonesian for a kampung in Bintaro. They have set up a small library and have been in desperate need of books . Our 6th graders have been working in conjunction with the WatSan, a yayasan that works with disadvantage Indonesian communities to improve water and sanitation conditions through educational activities. Watsan was working under the guidance of Yayasan Emmanuel, but has grown to establish an independent organization in Indonesia. One of the requests from this community was to set up a public library. The library is up and working, but the book collection is very limited. This was another wonderful opportunity for our students to learn about being responsible world citizens by giving to their host country. The response was overwhelming. Students, teachers and the PEL community contributed more than Rp14.8 million worth of books in two days. Each student was able to sign their book and stamp it with a Pattimura Library stamp.
Pages To Grow is a Blog that was created by my Grade 11 son, Jared Smith, who is working on his IB service project. He is working with four Grade 8 students Isabella, Mansi, .... , .... on acquiring books for distribution in Indonesia. A blog has been created for others in the global community to help with this cause. You can visit his site at: http://pagestogrow.blogspot.com/search?q=pagestogrow