11,000 quality US English books for Sabah
Published on: Friday, October 20, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: More than 11,000 quality English language educational books of all types from the United States are poised to be distributed free to various educational institutions in the State. According to Pacos Trust Executive Director Anne Lasimbang, the books, the majority of which are hardcover titles from various well known American publishers such as McGraw-Hill and others, comprise business, educational textbooks, novels and children's books intended for kindergartens, primary, secondary and higher educational institutions."We are aware that quality books are very expensive these days, so we are very grateful and thankful to The Asia Foundation for their generous gift."
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"We actually faced several challenges, including getting the books out of the port when they arrived in the State as the authorities wanted to impose tax on the books saying the large amount of books was surely worth a lot. "We convinced the port authorities that these books were not for sale and we are thankful to the shipping and forwarding companies managing the book importations for their assistance on the matter," she said at the book handing over launching and exhibition event at Pacos Trust premises at Kg Kivatu, Penampang, Thursday.Asia Foundation Malaysia Representative Herizal Hazri said the organisation is an NGO based in San Francisco, United States, that has been in Malaysia since the 1950s. "It is a non-profit international development organisation committed to improving lives across Asia with 18 offices throughout Asean.
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"The book handover programme today represents the oldest programme in the foundation first launched in 1961. We have distributed 60,000-80,000 books annually in the Malaysia.
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"We often also organise various programmes to assist local communities to improve their living standards, assist the Government with good policies for the benefit of local communities and assist in educational development. So this programme is under the education development programme in the country."For Sabah this is the fourth batch of books being handed over since 2011. Each shipment to the State is worth close to RM1.5 million. As such, I am proud of the efforts of Pacos with the assistance of the State Government in receiving and distributing these books State-wide."He said in the peninsula, the organisation receives books for distribution is Universiti Malaya and in Sarawak, the recipient is the Sarawak Foundation. "Both are large organisations which have their own funds. The number of books received by the peninsula, Sarawak and Sabah is around the same. Thus, I am proud that Pacos while not being as large in resources as the two mentioned above is still able to distribute these books Statewide in Sabah."Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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