United Irigueños, Inc. (UI) launched its Books for Tots program in October 2007 in partnership with professional educators in the Philippines, the National Bookstore Foundation, Inc., parents of students and supporters. The project aims to deliver high-quality books to poor and deserving schoolchildren in the rural communities of the Philippines.

The Books for Tots project has been conceived and put into effect following initial survey which indicated that in Iriga City, Philippines during the 2007 school year, there were 14,500 elementary students in public schools but less than 7,000 English books.

Irigueños of Southern California initiated and designed the project which UI has promoted through its network.

Books for Tots in sync with UN ‘Literacy Decade’

Books for Tots can also be seen as a response to United Nations’ declaration that the decade from 2003 to 2012 is the “Literacy Decade.”

Over 113 million children worldwide are not gaining access to literacy and according to the United Nations, “Literacy efforts have so far failed to reach the poorest and most marginalised groups of people – the Decade will particularly address such populations, under the banner of Literacy for all: voice for all, learning for all.”

We believe there is a direct correlation between literacy and a person’s chances of success as an adult. In addition, the ratio of students to books is a good indicator of a child’s ability to gain access to literacy and learning. Therefore, it is clear that increasing the number of books in places where children learn will have a direct effect on the children’s literacy.

According to the Department of Education, there are as noted above 14,500 children in Iriga’s public schools; however, in the 2007-2008 school year there were only 7,000 books in English available to these students.

We would want to help improve literacy in Iriga on a long-term basis, and not just provide dole-outs sporadically. To achieve these goals, we emphasize three factors: PARTNERSHIPS, SUSTAINABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY.

Hurdling the first challenge

Our first challenge was actually finding the real experts to partner with since we are not the experts in this subject area, nor are we the experts in local literacy conditions.

Thus we asked ourselves: Who knows best what the problems and possible solutions are but the professional educators in Iriga - the teachers, the principals and the Superintendent of Education? Who will be the eager cheerleaders for our efforts but parents of the students? Who’s the better expert in the logistics of book production, delivery and quality control than the National Bookstore Foundation, Inc. – a nonprofit Foundation with more than fifty years of experience in the book business?

Books donated don’t disappear into a black hole

Our core competency is to organize at the grassroots level and provide leadership, strategy and ongoing accountability.

For purposes of accountability, we see to it that all books donated to public schools are housed in the public schools’ libraries, where they are tracked and inventoried.

We are also continually measuring performance and success.

We are pursuing a unique approach to measure the project’s success - we have collected baseline data through written surveys distributed to principals, teachers and students. We will conduct similar surveys on an annual basis, if possible. Thus, we are able to measure and keep track of improvements, including soft factors such as students’ attitudes towards literacy and reading.

In addition, all public school libraries we are partnering with are tracking usage of books through library cards. This gives us data on how many students have accessed and borrowed the books during the school year, thereby allowing us to make adjustments based on usage statistics.

On the other hand, teachers and librarians receive ongoing training from our foundation partner, National Bookstore Foundation, Inc., regarding current educational and literacy issues.

We do expect the project to provide value year after year, because our partnership with professional educators in Iriga will ensure that there are ongoing, year-round literacy programs that are built into the curriculum to help improve students’ literacy.

At the same time, to maintain sustainability, we are promoting a sustained giving campaign: rather than making a one-time donation, we are slowly moving towards a sustained giving model using automatic, monthly payments from checking or credit card accounts.

No more inefficiencies or corrupt participants

National Bookstore Foundation, Inc. is a professional, credible and experienced partner. It knows all the problems with logistics, it speaks the language, it has the incentive and the clout to police the process.

Moreover, National Book Store donates approximately twenty percent of books in addition to the books that we donate!

Only high-quality books are donated

The books donated are high-quality and award-winning books selected by Filipino educators, especially for Filipino students.

Books are NOT SHIPPED FROM THE U.S. but are locally procured in the Philippines, thus eliminating shipping expenses. The books are produced and published in the Philippines, thus creating secondary benefits for the local economy, benefiting local paper producers, book printers, wholesale distributors and other suppliers in the book production chain.

What’s been accomplished so far?

We have started with a small-scale 12-month pilot project the purpose of which was to identify the feasibility of the concept and the processes involved.

The strategy pursued for the pilot project was to focus on ten public schools, the most needy public schools in Iriga, based on information from the Department of Education.

The pilot project has allowed us to identify strengths and build upon lessons learned, improve weaknesses, and then plan to replicate the project across all public schools in Iriga.

Between November 2007 to July 2008, we have built strong, professional working partnerships with stakeholders, based on mutual respect and trust.

As such we have not been viewed as outsiders, but rather as partners who are working with professional educators in Iriga, as we work to achieve our common goal of improving literacy.

We have accomplished our short-term goal of delivering, as of December 2008, 2,000 high-quality books to the ten neediest public schools in Iriga.

We have also identified the next qualified group of public schools to which to deliver 3,000 books for the current year.

Our long-term goal: By 2012, each child in Iriga will have the means to gain access to learning, through books and literacy training.

The process is replicable by regional groups

 The steps are simple:

 - Regional group/club sponsors the concept

   (NOTE: The pilot project was sponsored by Irigueños of Southern California)

- Regional group/club submits proposal to United Irigueños

 - United Irigueños promotes the project

 -  Global community provides $upport

United Irigueños encourages regional groups to develop new concepts within their regions for community service projects in Iriga!

Books for Tots for instance demonstrates the easy process that organization can use to make a sustainable, long-term difference in the lives of our families and friends in Iriga.

UI can give an instant, global network of supporters while, in addition, supporting a group’s project through our tax-exempt status.

You can be a part of sustained support campaign

To participate in our sustained giving campaign, donations may be pledged to “United Irigueños, Inc” or supporters may use their credit card to set up regular monthly pledges, simply by visiting www.unitedIrigueños.org and selecting “Donate.”

If donation is by check, please make it payable to:

United Irigueños, Inc.
302 Washington Street Suite 512
San Diego, California 92103