Targeted book donations spark a love of reading, preparing Micronesian students for a lifetime of learning.
Working with local teachers, Habele equips schools with appropriate, relevant books chosen to excite island readers. The effort spans early childhood education centers through high schools. School libraries often double as local community libraries on the most faraway Micronesian islands. Habele also provides books directly to children.
Books for School & Libraries
New and gently used books are purchased or gathered and sent to Micronesian educators all across the FSM who make requests to Habele. Gathering books –or donating to pay the cost of sending books– is one of the simplest way volunteers in the United States support Habele.
Habele also provisions schools with local language materials that preserve island languages while supporting students’ ability learn to read English, the lingua franca of linguistically diverse Micronesia. For under-documented languages, Habele has engaged local and western experts to develop new language materials, providing them to local schools, development workers, and researchers.
Books for Individual Children
Young Island Readers offers all children born in Yap the opportunity to receive one new, age-appropriate, book through the mail each month until their fifth birthday. This direct-to-end-user book donation program is based on the fact that access to books in one’s own home before a child enters kindergarten is the strongest indicator of a child’s subsequent reading achievement and interest levels. Young Island Readers is made possible by the Dollywood Foundation’s Imagination Library which partners with local nonprofits to provide age-appropriate books every month to children up to age five.
If you’d like to support readers in Micronesia, please consider donating.
Established by former Peace Corps Volunteers, Habele is a 501(3) nonprofit supporting Micronesian students.