By car or carabao, Project Aklat and the library have legs

I had always romanticized the idea of libraries growing up. The shadowy libraries from Goosebumps, the magical libraries of Hogwarts, the bull session of a library in Breakfast Club—those renderings in literature and pop culture had created in me a notion of the place as much more than just a space for books.

In grade school, it was my day’s high point. After dismissal, I’d sprint to the library with one of my good friends. We were always one of the last ones to be picked up—the consequence of having younger siblings—so at 11, an age we considered too old to be playing on slides and see-saws, we made the library our playground. Every dismissal, we’d head to the school library and read about the Hardy Boys, Johnny Quest, and kids who get what’s coming to them (the moralistic Goosebumps).

It was the time I got acquainted with the newspaper. While it was just an object of curiosity for me before—why did adults bury their heads in those?—or a source of clippings used for school projects, I discovered, in newspaper youth sections, voices to relate with, voices that seemed to know who I was and how I was feeling.

And when the words were too dense to read, when the books were too thick, and the school day too long, the library still provided a kind of shelter. The aircon served as a great respite from the gymnasium heat and the silence? Golden, especially in a school that seemed to be growing in population every year.

Burn after reading

I can’t imagine how I would have turned out if I didn’t spend all that time in the library growing up. Maybe I’d be better at sports. Maybe I’d be more sociable. Maybe I’d actually be capable of playing an instrument. But I can’t imagine not having that access, that opportunity to access that information and knowledge.

It’s why something like Project Aklat, the National Book Store Foundation’s annual book drive, sounds just right for me. I can’t imagine kids growing up and not being able to have access to information, to wisdom, or at least the magic, of books.

For seven years, the socio-civic arm of National Book Store has been putting together a book drive for libraries around the country, as well as spearheading the maintenance of libraries in the areas.

“From the beginning, one of the National Book Store Foundation’s flagship projects has been the maintenance of several mobile libraries,” Trina Licauco-Alindogan, the National Book Store Foundation’s chairman explains. “These libraries go to different underprivileged schools to give their students an opportunity to develop a love for reading. The mobile libraries were so popular with the children that we felt the ideal situation would have been to leave behind the books whenever we visited a school.”

At the time, the systems weren’t in place for an endeavor like that. At the same time, they were surprised to find a lot of people asking about the mobile library program and how to be of help. “There were some people who would volunteer their time, but there were actually more who just wanted to help by making a donation,” she explains. “This willingness of complete strangers to help us was actually the inspiration that started Project Aklat. The idea was hatched where National Book Store customers could help us in our mission of bringing books and a love of reading to underprivileged students.”

What started with just 5,000 donations has since morphed into a 45,000-heavy project, on top of almost 800 libraries. “Project Aklat has evolved over the years. From a mobile library, it evolved into a leave-behind library. Since then, we have been able to actually build and refurbish permanent libraries in beneficiary schools. This gives the project a more permanent and lasting effect,” she explains. “Without exaggeration, every single turnover we do is a success story in itself. You can really see the excitement in the eyes of teachers, students and even parents the first time they see their new library filled with books.”

Still, a project this young is not without hitches. Trina admits that logistics is probably the most difficult and problematic. As is the nature with foundations, the work is reliant on donations and volunteers. “For example, when we bring books to the furthest provincial areas which do not even have roads, it actually costs a significant amount to bring people to the area and to bring the actual books, shelves and other furniture to the beneficiary schools by jeepney or sometimes even by horseback or on carabaos.”

But this is a project that’s growing steam. And whether or not they do it by car or carabao, they’re determined to spread literacy to a country that badly needs it. “We really want to find beneficiaries in the most hard to reach and depressed areas that people have never heard of. They are the ones who need the most help but get the least because they are so hard to get to,” she says. “Would you believe that in this day and age, there are still schools that use charcoal and banana leaves as their pen and paper?”

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Spread the love for reading this season of giving and help build the dreams of the future generation. Purchase and donate books in the Project Aklat 2012 from November 16 to December 31, 2012 in all National Book Store, Powerbooks and Bestsellers branches.