Virginia La Torre Jeker is a tough lady. As a lawyer practicing in Dubai she has to be. Although she doesn't believe in giving up, she almost did while pushing her latest charity initiative - collecting and sending books to underprivileged children in Sri Lanka.
Virginia wrote her first book, Benji Explores Hong Kong in 1991, five years after she moved there, and had her son, Marc. "He loved story books, so I looked for books about Hong Kong to satisfy his curiosity," she says. When she discovered there were hardly any, she decided to write one herself complete with her own paintings and water colour illustrations. The story was about a little bird, Benji, and his adventures in Hong Kong with a boy called - you guessed it, Marc! The self-published children's book was such a big success that it spawned two more. When Virginia moved to Dubai in 2001 she brought with her the 2,000 copies of Benji books that were still unsold.
Rather than just letting them lie unread she decided to put the books to good use by giving them away to underprivileged children in Sri Lanka. She'd heard that many poor children in Asia have no access to story books after she came in touch with Books for Asia, a charity based in the US that regularly ships books to needy children there.
Since the last time she sent books to Sri Lanka in 2010 (read the story here) she has been in contact with a few charities who have been working there providing books to underprivileged children. "I've been in touch with Books for Asia official Sharmini Nagendran and Ajith Perera of the Rebuilding Foundation Library in Uragasmanhandiya, Sri Lanka, and the two charity organisations have conveyed to me how much the books mean to the kids.
"I sent them some pages from a colouring book I found in Dubai and they sent me beautiful pictures of the kids who coloured it in."
That was enough to set off Virginia again. "It was heartbreaking to see how eager the children were and I really wanted to get them some more books," she says.
So she decided to collect books with the help of friends and acquaintances and ship them to Sri Lanka.
"I decided to ask people living in the Green Community in Dubai, where I live, to help me collect books for the children," she says.
"I had a lot of support from the people in the community, especially Beverley Goettling, manager of leasing, Union Properties," she says. "She agreed to send out flyers to all the residents asking for book donations. She was as good as her word and we got hundreds of books that way. We set up a collection box at the Green Community office and collected around 250 books, which was great.''
Then when her friend Aisha Hussaini's daughter, seven-year-old Amani, heard about it, she too chipped in and offered to donate 100 copies of her first book, The Real Family, which she had written. "Around a hundred more came in from friends. So we had around 450 books waiting to be shipped to kids in Sri Lanka."
Shipping troubles
That's when reality kicked in. "The logistics of sending the books drove me nuts," Virginia reveals. "It should have been an easy project but it wasn't.
"I tried contacting a few companies to help me ship the books, but wasn't able to make much headway. So I got in touch with others involved in Sri Lanka to see if they could help. All of them promised but either didn't follow up or just didn't bother. It was so frustrating that at a certain point I thought of giving up."
Just when things appeared to be really bleak, Virginia received what she felt was a sign for her to keep going. "Someone from the Green Community said he had 14 boxes of books, mostly used school books and some story books, to donate. ‘Wow', I thought to myself!"
She emailed Books for Asia to see if they would accept them. When the reply came, it almost undid all the good work Virginia had done so far. "They told me that their policy was that they took only new books, and here I was stuck with a load of used books, except for Amani's 100," says Virginia. Apparently there had been some miscommunication.
Virginia explained to them that most of them were used books, but in very good condition. When there was no reply, her frustration increased. But this time her tenacity surfaced. "I remembered a lady from Books for Asia, Melody Zavala, who used to send me cards during Christmas as I was one of their patrons," she says. "I wrote to her about my dilemma. She wrote back almost immediately saying that she'd been in touch with the Sri Lanka charity - Rebuilding Foundation Library - and they'd found the perfect home for these books.''
Rebuilding Foundation Library, situated in Uragasmanhandiya, a village in the Galle District of Sri Lanka, was founded in 2004. This educational facility consisting of a library and a pre-school was officially opened in August 2007. In the first four months alone the library enrolled a staggering 1,400 members. Some of the children travelled up to 16km to get there. Today it has over 2,500 members from 64 different schools.
A new chapter
Melody explained to Virginia that the charity's policy of taking only new books was because most used books sent to them were in a terrible condition. It took too much of their time and resources just sorting them out. But she said she had contacted Rebuild Foundation Library and that they were willing to accept the books.
"I was overjoyed and promptly began looking for a transport company that could ship the books to Sri Lanka free of charge. Hasenkamp Middle East LLC said they would and in fact, Olaf Wuensch, managing director, himself came to my home to bring me the proper packing cartons and tape!"
When the books finally arrived in Uragasmanhandiya they found a great home in the Rebuilding Foundation Library as well as the nursery section of the school in the area. Sharmini and Ajith wrote to Virginia to let her know how much the children enjoyed the books. In fact, one of the little girls, Liyasha, was so taken with Virginia's Benji character that she took to drawing him and writing to him. "She says she wants to write books like Virginia," says Sharmini.
Despite the stumbling blocks on this project, Virginia feels it's been worth it at the end of the day.
"Amani's books are the real treasure in this batch, and I am really excited for the kids to get them," says Virginia. "She was inspired to write her own book and to get it published, which she did, and now they are being used for the purpose she intended - so that less privileged children could read them.
"When I read the book, I was so surprised because the topic was about a duck that was adopted into a swan family. It's beautiful.''
Virginia can look back on the setbacks now as a learning curve. "If you see the file of correspondence I have of the requests I made for sending the books, for people to accept a good deed, you'll know why I was so frustrated," she says. "It almost made me think: why go through all this again. I could see why people don't want to get involved in such efforts and I hated myself for thinking that way. I am always the one to lend a hand, think outside the box to get things done."
And that's what she finally did. "During those times I would think that look on the faces of the kids after they receive the books will be worth it all," she remembers.
And that's exactly the reward Virginia got when she received the pictures of the kids with the books from Sharmini.
How you can help
Books for Asia puts one million brand-new books into the hands of students and teachers in 18 countries every year. Through offices in Asia, Books for Asia identifies and donates directly to libraries, schools, and universities in need.
- Publishers can donate their overstock. The donation process is quick and easy and donations are eligible for tax deductions.
- Donate cash. Your monetary contribution will support some of their projects and increase the number of books reaching areas affected by poverty and natural disaster in 18 countries. Any amount will help. As little as Dh180 can provide a girls' secondary school in Afghanistan with a set of brand-new books. Dh735 can stock school libraries in northern Sri Lanka, an area debilitated by years of civil war. Make a tax-deductible donation to the Books for Asia Fund.
- Conduct a book drive. Teachers, students, employee groups, service clubs, and concerned individuals can organise book drives as a fun way to share the love of books with those who need them most. For more information on the above, contact Wendy Rockett by email onwrockett@asiafound.org.
- Read children's books online. Support Books for Asia on We Give Books, a website where you can read storybooks published by Penguin Books to your own children or students while supporting less fortunate children in developing parts of Asia. The Pearson Foundation will donate a book for every book read! To help, visit www.wegivebooks.org.
