THOUGH Kuala Lumpur was named World Book Capital for 2020 by Unesco, the reality is that despite 94% of Malaysians being literate, only 3% have a regular reading habit.
So, to instil the reading habit among the young – especially underprivileged children – non-profit organisation Friends to Mankind Malaysia is running an initiative to collect 10,000 books from donors to distribute to those in need, as well as to build libraries for children.
Called The Book Effect, the initiative has so far collected 5,000 books through word of mouth.
The group is now calling out to the public for help in this endeavour.
“When we started this project, we did not know what it would grow into,” said project lead Apshy Vimal during the recent launch ceremony for The Book Effect project.
Guest of honour at the launch was Tunku Zain Al-Abidin Tuanku Muhriz, the founding president of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas).
“We had an idea, a pretty simple one,” Apshy added. “We wanted to raise books and build some libraries.
“But over the last few months of meetings and planning and visiting homes, refugee schools, and drug rehab centres, we have to come to realise that the project is so much more than about collecting books and putting them on shelves.
“We’re here to share the joy and spread the love through reading. We want to impact people’s lives, and we want them to feel the magic that we did and still do.”
She said the books donated can be in any language spoken in Malaysia.
Collection bins have been set up around Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, including at 20 confirmed Starbucks Coffee outlets.
In addition, The Book Effect team is also looking for volunteers to help with book collection, building libraries, starting community programmes, as well as spreading the word about this initiative.
For more, visit the Friends to Mankind website.
