Don't let our library close!

Hi,

My name is Gary. I am a retired pilot and a writer of historical and literary fiction. I donate royalties to It Takes A Village, a group of good people who bring books and the outside world to poor and disadvantaged children around the world who would have neither if not for them. I work through them with kids at the Kadzakaloa library in central Malawi, but they have many libraries in other parts of Africa, Nepal, Peru, Mexico and many, many more places. They go where the need is great, and I am very proud to be a member of the team. I have been doing this for over 2 years now, and the joy I get from seeing those smiling faces, reading and laughing with them, is impossible to measure. Truly.

ITAV operates on donations and with volunteers like me. This year fund raising has been slow and a very hard choice had to be made. It's a decision I'm glad that I didn't have to make. In order to keep their many, many other libraries open they would have to cease operating at Kadzakaloa. Those beautiful kids are losing their one link to the outside world, their one chance to speak with a person far away who wants nothing more than to help them improve their chances for a better life.

80% of girls will quit school and be on their second baby by 18. The drain on their society is incalculable and devastating, as these girls have no education so they have little to contribute in a society that needs ALL of its people to contribute.

I hope you can find it in your heart to reach a hand out to these kids during this Christmas season. They already walk miles to school on dirt paths so they can sit on a dirt floor. They do not ever complain. Just so they can learn!! Please, won't you help us help them??