cause

I think life is best lived when one has an art, sport and cause. No doubt you have your own cause. Here’s mine …

SWTT Cover

Help can be a bewildering thing to give when it comes to the developing world. I can understand why some think a first step is clean water. Or a mosquito net. My best idea of a foundation stone is literacy. A person who can read and write can petition for a new well. They can employ themselves sufficiently to meet their basic needs. They can fill a prescription.

CODE has been supporting libraries in the developing world for close to fifty years. Here’s what gets me …

  • CODE pays shipment costs so books donated from America make it to Africa.
  • CODE doesn’t think children should have to learn how to speak English and how to read at the same time. Local language texts are bought and/or produced.
  • Besides books, CODE furnishes the library basics: tables, chairs and shelves.
  • Many third world teachers are recent high school graduates or retired civil servants for instance. They’ve never learned the art of teaching kids to read. CODE trains teachers.
  • CODE’s programs address gender inequality: of the 3.6 billion adults worldwide that are illiterate, two thirds of them are women.
  • CODE provides HIV and AIDS-related education.
  • CODE works with local partners, linking up with local foundations.
  • 92.3% of CODE’s budget goes to books and programs.
  • CODE also educates North American children about development issues. As a hands-on activity, CODE arranges for kids to send school supplies kits overseas: pencils, erasers, notebooks.

Great things happen in libraries—they’re such useful spaces. Anti-female circumcision activism gets underway, for an example. Adult education takes place after school hours.

Another amazing thing about CODE is that it’s financed to a great degree by CODE INC. which supplies election materials to emerging democracies. All the business dividends go straight to the foundation.

To whatever degree my books ever earn a profit, I’ve promised a percentage of that to CODE. Some day, I’d love to volunteer to do work in the field for them if they’ll let me; I think I’d make a decent library animator. Meanwhile, CODE helps over a million kids a year.

Learn more at CODECAN.ORG