A Mobile Lending Library!
Most migrant families don’t have any books. Not one, in the entire house. Books are a luxury. They are something that people who have enough to eat every day might think to buy for themselves, and their children. Many of our clients did not finish school. Some have no education at all. Many attended elementary school, at least, and can read at a basic level. But what use is that, if you have no books?
Enter the Family Education pilot lending library. You guys, it’s just a plastic bin full of Burmese language books, that our team adds to as they are able to find them. But it’s a treasure!
Every week, when the team drives to each community to teach classes, they bring out the bin, and let the families pick through and choose a book to borrow until the following week.
We dream of adding many more books, and rotating out what we take with us in the bin to the communities each week. It’s a little thing, but it’s a beautiful thing. It’s a way to help families learn together, parents to demonstrate the value of literacy to their children, and a chance for parents to read to their children at night, maybe for the first time ever.
Thank you for supporting Family Education.
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The day we took these photos, we had to cancel 3 of our 4 scheduled classes because Thai police were conducting raids in those communities, looking for undocumented workers. With the the bombing and shelling all over Burma since the military coup, and the increasing desperation of Burmese nationals, the situation here on the border is very difficult for the families we meet. Please keep them in your hearts, minds, and prayers.
Carrien is co-founder of The Charis Project, Family Education Curriculum Developer, and mom of 6.
You can get her free mini-course on Making Your Family More Resilient here.