This is Surely Possible

IMAGINE

Let us pause to imagine what could happen decades after the Community Centered Libraries have started. What might change and what could be set into motion? What are the possible ways that Community Centered Libraries may contribute long term to the economic development and improved quality of life for those in the surrounding area? What benefits might be enjoyed by those who used the libraries and their neighbors after 10, 20, 40 and more years?

VERSION 1.0

The first detailed outline for the Community Centered Libraries was made in August of 2014. (link) During the coming months I will make road trips to 5 cities and 3 countries as the founder of Our Stewardship Community to enroll support. Part of that support includes advice from experts and the public. Besides the advisers I meet with face to face I will also connect with many more online and using Skype. I will use their inputs to make improvements to the detailed outline.

That outline will be used as an organizational skeleton for the links in our five services of: Networking Hub, Wiki Plus, Educational Modules, Think Tank and Research & Development Lab. During the coming months and years the volunteer college students, advisers, paid staff and others will flesh out that skeleton.

The contents and structure of the initial outline was made based on my personal research that I conducted sporadically over the course of many years. That first draft I call version 1.0 and it is essentially my best guess of how to effectively serve those in severe poverty in remote villages in developing countries. I expect that the inputs from the advisers will confirm some of my guesses and correct some errors. They will bring fresh perspectives based on their backgrounds and experiences.

CROSS CULTURAL

I am just one man who grew up in an upper middle class family that was in a suburb of a large city in the USA (Houston, Texas). Most of the people I have known these 61 years are very much like me. I briefly visited a few other countries on vacation (Mexico, Canada and Bahamas). I worked 12 years at a seminary where I especially enjoyed socializing with international students and missionary students.

Given this background I am well aware that there will be many cross cultural challenges that will arise as we reach out around the globe. So I will be deliberate in enrolling advisers that will guide me with these issues. Not only will advisers be assisting me with the design, planning and management of Our Stewardship Community but the Think Tank service will bring together the best minds from around our shared planet. We will pioneer many ways to help each other solve the problems that have been plaguing the severely poor.

AUTONOMOUS

The intention from the start is for each community centered library to be autonomous.

The local library board governs the library and that includes:

what is included and excluded from the collection

what activities are permitted and not permitted in the meeting rooms

the ways the library is operated, promoted and grown

the selection and management of the personnel

The guidelines OSC provides initially include possible ways to raise funds. Then as many community centered libraries apply those guidelines they will be revised using their inputs. Also fund raising methods that have worked in the region or anywhere in the world can be used. Plus the local library board members or others could experiment with all kinds of creative new ways to raise money.

It is acceptable with me as the founder for the local library board to seek and use funds from outside the community. Only let me exhort that there be clarity about any conditions attached to those funds.

PAY IT FORWARD

Let me say from the beginning that Our Stewardship Community is privileged to be able to work together so we can provide our products and services free of charge to the end users. These are gifts from those that have been fortunate to have more than enough. We seek to facilitate education so that fellow members of our human family will improve their lives. There is zero debt owed.

Let me state again clearly that no money is required or requested from the community centered libraries. However I will encourage the library board to find ways to pay it forward. There has been a movement called Pay It Forward http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_it_forward

LONG TERM

Realistically I can know today that some of the Community Centered Libraries will fail. There will be a variety of reasons for those failures. And we will be careful to study why each one failed. We will not fear failure but learn useful lessons so that other libraries do not fail.

That being said I cannot imagine a good reason to shut down a Community Centered Library that is led by a local board. The guidelines we will provide the board will assist them to be aware of the needs of the community they serve and responsive to meet those needs. There will be communication systems developed so they can ask for assistance from Our Stewardship Community. We will be glad to research and create educational modules best suited to the needs of their patrons. We will connect them with experienced library leaders who can give advice on internal matters.

So having laid that ground work let me invite you to imagine with me what the future might look like for the communities that the libraries serve.

Every community will have a unique story to tell. But generally we can imagine today what it might be like for the subsistence farmers to have greatly increased the harvests of their crops. As they had more produce and products from the livestock then there would be prosperity. The surplus would be sold for a higher income. Some of those additional dollars could go to buy needed medicines and improve housing for the family. More children attend school because they are not needed as much in the fields and the parents can afford the tuition, school supplies and uniforms. With more students from prospering families then the schools will improve. The prospering farmers will be able to hire people. As many subsistence farmers prospered in a region then there would be more taxes paid and that would lead to improved roads, bridges and other infrastructure. Or in some more remote areas they residents could just cooperate to improve their common infrastructure. Sooner than later solar power will become available in these communities and Barefoot College (link) is paving the way for that to happen in remote villages. Then the farmers who are no longer just barely surviving can afford to take advantage of the many ways electricity transforms a lifestyle.

ORPHANS

Our shared planet has a super abundance of orphans. These children do not have parents due to wars, famine, AIDS and other causes. They are helpless and often hopeless. A small percent of all the orphans live in orphanages. Some of these are sponsored by the government and some are sponsored by nonprofit organizations. Some of those nonprofits are Christian. As I read the Bible it seems to tell me that God has a very special concern for orphans.

I have seen short videos of orphanages all around the world. The living conditions there are very basic. The funding is small, so they need to keep the costs low.

It is my understanding today that some orphanages have a school on the premises and in other cases the orphans go to the school in the area. I suppose that some do not offer any schooling.

My main concern is for the long term future for each orphan. There will come day that is the last day for each orphan to live at the orphanage. Then they must find a way to earn a living on their own. If they cannot earn a livable income, then the typical alternatives are prostitution or crime. There are pimps, gangs and drug dealers in every part of the world.

I know today that one of the most valuable skills that an orphan can have is the ability to read. Reading can open pave the way to more learning and to better employment.

Deep in my heart is a super strong desire for orphan children and others to be able to read.

I heard a report of a person that works for a State government. They learned that the best predictor of the future demand for prison beds is how many fail to pass the standardized reading tests for fourth grade. If they are not reading by 9 years old then it is probable they will not graduate from high school. Many without a basic high school education will become involved in crimes that will require that a prison bed is available. What that tells me is that we need to do our best to help all children before fourth grade or 9 years old to have good reading skills.

The education for orphans that we will provide will go wide and deep into the best possible ways for them to learn how to read. It is my strong conviction that when they can get to that level of competence then they can continue to learn to read better and learn other subjects.

Our educational modules will emphasize up to what is fifth grade just to give them an extra margin and boost. Then we will point to other providers of educational resources to carry them through to high school graduation.

Long ago basic education for children was referred to as the 3 Rs. That is what they called it back in the 1800s reading, writing and arithmetic. Our Stewardship Community educational modules will emphasize these essentials for the orphans. Reading will always be number one priority.

Then later after we have built a solid base of reading, writing and arithmetic we will venture into STEM that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This is what is being emphasized in the USA to prepare students for high tech jobs of the future. That will be the second major batch of lessons. After that time we will have had plenty of contact with those on the front lines. We will have been asking them what kinds of lessons they want most. Then gradually and gracefully during the coming many years we will do our best to provide excellent educational resources for them.

The beauty of this kind of work is that it remains mostly the same. A second grade teacher has a huge challenge the first year. But then by the third year of teaching the same subject then most lessons could be reused and improved. Likewise our educational modules will be challenging to create initially. But because they are stored digitally they remain the same. They do not dissolve, expire or go out of date. We will gradually develop systems for those on the front lines to make recommendations for continual improvements.

I consider that learning to read English is surely very much like learning to read most other languages. A child learns the alphabet by associating each letter with familiar pictures. Like A is for Apple, B is for Banana, C is for Cat, etc. That is used to learn not only the letters but also the colors and basic words like car, bus, ladder, etc. Our Stewardship Community will ask volunteers to draw lots of simple illustrations and take photos of such objects. Plus we will find and catalog those online that are licensed for us to reuse.

Then when preparing the lessons for Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, etc. we will match the beginner vocabulary to the suitable images in our database.

This can be used to help children learn 2 or 3 major languages. By becoming bilingual and trilingual they will increase their value in the marketplace later.

It is common for children to speak several languages in many places around the world before 10 years old and we are just facilitating their ability to also read a few languages.

TEACHING TEACHERS

Paul told Timothy to teach teachers that will teach others. That is a wise stewardship of time and talent. When a teacher is taught how to teach better, then the ripples of those lessons will have continual impacts for a very long time. So one way for us to best serve the orphans, is to provide resources that will teach the teachers. Most of these teachers are in a very primitive setting contrasted to the classrooms in the USA. But still there are principles, guidelines and teaching aids that will help them. Also as the recording studios operate in the Community Centered Libraries the teachers in the region, province and nation will be able to equip and guide the front lines teachers.