Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel honours Bookbridge work
A team from Bookbridge met with Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, on 23rd April 2010 in Berlin as part of the social project competition called “startsocial,” a yearly competition hosted by McKinsey and the Chancellor‘s office. For the huge progress since its pilot project in Mongolia, Bookbridge and its co-operation partners including Scouts, the German Chancellor honoured this co-operation with the startsocial-award on the 23rd April which was also celebrating “World Book Day.”
On that same day, more than 45 thousand books were dispatched to Mongolia in three containers, marking a successful Open Bridge Function held at Franconian International School (FIS) in Erlangan, Germany, where Mongolia's Ambassador to Germany, together with World Organization of the Scout Movement, Asia-Pacific Region, Regional Director Abdullah Rasheed, jointly presented the certificate of recognition to those partners who helped in sorting the books. The event also had a display of Mongolia's cultural music, dances and Ger, a temporary dwelling in Mongolia.
Bookbridge project founder Mr Carsten Rubsaamen was the main organizer of the event who introduced the project to a large group of well wishers and co-partners present at the function, explaining how the idea was born, what the project do and where it presently operate. He explained that BookBridge establishes education centers, trains teachers and supplies schools with books throughout the developing countries which they partner with local communities and educational institutions.
The three containers of books shipped to Mongolia will partly be assigned to the first educational centre in the country while the rest will be used to start the two other centres which will be operating before the year ends. These education centers are designed as social businesses, providing young educators with the possibility of a place to work, nurture their knowledge and pass it on to others.
During the “World Book Day” celebration, Bookbridge was formally inaugurated as a Foundation having WOSM as one of its co-founders. With this close collaboration with the worldwide Scouting community, BookBridge partnered with Scouts contribute to increase the value of education and its accessibility to all especially to children and young adults
Bookbridge is a registered nonprofit organisation under German law with headquarters in Regensburg, Germany consisting of many Scouts and volunteers around the world who strive for a worldwide balanced access to education for children, regardless of religious, ethnical or geographic origin by providing access to books and quality education.
Image 1: © http://www.bookbridge.org
