It seems so common for people to organize the bookshelf and find that many of the old books are gathering dust on the shelf quietly. For most of us, the value of a book fades away as you finish reading it. However, a book carrying the author’s sweat and heart deserves more than filling the bookshelf. Through some simple actions, the books’ value can be extended deeply. Donating books to children who don’t have books to read is a good option.

Offering books to the needy is really accessible in that many organizations hold events to facilitate donating. If you are a student, participating in the book donating activity held by most schools annually can be the first choice. You just select books which you thinks is helpful and bring them to schools. Staff at school will make sure books are delivered to the hands of new owners. If you miss the activities for any reason, you can also find similar organizations on the internet, such as the library-project covering 26 cities and provinces in China and the Room to Read which helps children, especially girls to form libraries in Vietnam and China. You just have to send books to the department of those organizations in your city.

The donation can be very meaningful, especially in China where educational opportunities are unevenly distributed. Among most charitable activities in China, poor children need of necessity is still their focus. The government has spent over 2 billion dollar to provide over 23 million students in the distant region free nutrient lunch since the fall of 2011. Some NPO also help in gathering cloths and providing health care for countryside students. However, those students’ need for spiritual enjoyment is often been ignored. As teenagers like us, students in poor villages deserve equal satisfaction we enjoy. Life for them should be something more than surviving under the help of others. Books which function as both a way of entertainment and a tool to break the cycle of poverty are highly desired. However, since the attention and help is still limited, students in countryside even do not have enough textbooks, while students in big cities are using electronic devices to replace their old books. As a child born in countryside, it is much harder to understand the context of same subject we learned due to the lack of educational books and basic knowledge we are exposed to through various educational opportunities available in cities. Moreover, this hardship sometimes may block them from getting higher education. To resolve this problem millions of students are facing, we can start by donating our used books. Since most beneficiaries are at our ages or younger than us. Books we find interesting can be particularly useful for them. Some educational books we read can introduce them to a brand new discipline in a more comprehensible way and minimize their anxiety of studying new subjects that they never heard of before. The knowledge they learned also offer them a way to break the physical barriers and connect with people outside their hometown.

Beside the advantage of helping students who suffer from poor education condition, donating books also benefits in saving paper. A well-used book can be almost new after being read by its first owner. Donating the book does not only offer another person a chance to get free knowledge, but also save some paper from being wasted, in the long run, protecting the environment.

Based on the feasibility and significance of book donation, the responsibility as teenagers highly encourages us to treasure our books and maximize their values. Donating books to children in the poor region can be the best choice to implement our responsibility. 

X.Hu