I have discarded the idea of shipping books to the Philippines. Shipping is expensive and the books themselves may not prove to be useful to the children over there. This would be an inefficient use of limited resources.
Last year, I had a talk with the principal of the local public school and he had given me a wish-list of reading materials. I have since lost that list but what I do remember is the name of the supplier, Saint Mary's Publishing Corporation. It is one of the major suppliers for educational materials. Their website is under construction so after a bit of googling, I found their email address. I got a very prompt reply (sadly, not everyone over there is as prompt) from the President himself, Jerry Vicente S. Catabijan:
Thank you for your inquiry. It is unfortunate that our website at present is still under construction. It could have been more convenient for you to browse about our products.
We admire your benevolence to donate books to your hometown. Please allow us to become a partner to this endeavor by extending to you a special discount so many may benefit from your donation. It will help us a lot in identifying the fitting textbooks to be donated by informing us exactly the name and address of the school recipient.
We could send you our brochure and price list by courier. Please email us your complete address.
Mabuhay po kayo!!!
I have since replied stating my lack of knowledge of the local schools' needs as well as my limited funds (but with unlimited great intentions!), and that I am very open to suggestions to a work that is very much in progress!
We'll see how this goes...
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