SUVA – The U.S. Embassy is pleased to announce that The Asia Foundation has donated 2,384 books to educational and government institutions in Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, and Tuvalu as part of its Books for Asia program. The books arrived in Fiji in March and on May 6, the U.S. Embassy in Suva began distributing them. The first recipient was Fiji National University (FNU). The other books will be delivered to over 30 institutions including libraries, schools, learning centers and government offices over the next several months, as COVID-19 precautions allow.
Ambassador Cella presented the nearly 200 medical texts, nursing study guides, and other general books to William May, Dean of the FNU School of Medicine, and other FNU Staff at the U.S. Embassy. Ambassador Cella said, “We are proud to partner with The Asia Foundation in this great venture to promote education and continuous learning. This first donation to FNU is just the first of many.”
This shipment is only the latest in an ongoing Books for Asia program in the Pacific to promote education, literacy, and skills building. The U.S. Embassy shares similar goals to the Asia Foundation for promoting human development through reading, education, and learning important life skills. In prior years, the U.S. Embassy distributed thousands of books to over 25 organizations from the Foundation’s Books for Asia program and looks forward to doing so again.
Beyond the donated books, The Asia Foundation’s Let’s Read (www.letsreadasia.org) initiative has made thousands of titles available online broadening reading resources for youth of all ages. Asia’s only free region-wide digital library for children, the Let’s Read platform cultivates the skills of local authors and illustrators and draws on the Foundation’s deep expertise and networks in communities across the Indo-Pacific.
The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives and expanding opportunities across the Indo-Pacific. The Foundation’s Books for Asia program is the leading provider of donated information resources in the region. The program currently delivers a quarter million books a year to thousands of institutions in 18 countries.
The U.S. Embassy in Suva through its Public Diplomacy Section supports English language programs, higher education advising, numerous academic and professional exchanges, projects aimed at encouraging youth to pursue science, technology, engineering, arts, math and English studies, and collaborates with local partners on community resource centers in Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, and Tuvalu.