Dr Annuar (left) and Lau are seen during a photo call.
SIBU (Jan 20): A donation drive has been launched to collect 11,000 English books for children in rural longhouses, villages, and schools in Nangka constituency.
Deputy Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development Datuk Dr Annuar Rapaee, who is Nangka assemblyman, said the Farley Foundation contributed 1,000 books to 22 longhouses under the Nangka Read English Programme last year.
“Now we want to increase it to 11,000, so we need another 10,000 books.
“In order to achieve it, we prepare the books bins in front of Farley outlets across Sarawak, so the public can donate their books for young children.
“This is a great initiative for fostering interest in reading among our young people. We must read a lot of English books to improve our vocabulary, grammar, and so on,” he said during the programme’s launch today.
Dr Annuar said he hoped the public would respond to the programme by contributing books.
“There is no way we can get extra knowledge without reading, that’s why the culture or the habit of reading must start from young and every student should make reading as a habit,” he added.
Farley Foundation president Eijing Lau said the programme seeks to collect new or gently used children’s books, which can then be distributed to families without books.
“We hope this initiative can help us to fulfil a mission to give back to our community.
“We also aim to enhance the lifestyles of our community while cultivating a fun reading habit,” he said.
The foundation also contributed five book donation bins to the Nangka service centre.