The Road to an Effective Classroom Environment
The Road to an Effective Classroom Environment is a professional learning podcast for educators, instructional leaders, and school administrators committed to building classrooms where learning thrives. Hosted by Dr. Lashawnte McCray-Sarvis, the podcast features evidence-based strategies, real-world experiences, and expert conversations focused on classroom culture, effective instruction, student engagement, and educator growth.
Classroom culture, educator leadership, and effective learning spaces
The Road to an Effective Classroom Environment
From One Idea to Global Impact: The Libraries for Kids Story
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What begins as one idea can become a movement that changes lives across the globe.
In this powerful episode of The Road to an Effective Classroom Environment, Dr. Lashawnte McCray-Sarvis sits down with Coach Roy Austin, the visionary behind Libraries for Kids, International. What started as a simple belief that every child deserves access to books has grown into a global mission impacting underserved communities around the world.
Together, they explore the realities of the global literacy gap, the barriers children face in accessing educational resources, and the leadership it takes to turn purpose into action.
This conversation is more than a story, it is a call to rethink access, equity, and the true meaning of opportunity in education.
Tune in to discover how one idea became a global force for change.
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Imagine walking into a classroom, eager to learn, ready to grow, but there are no books, no stories, no resources, no opportunity to explore the world beyond your immediate environment. Now imagine what happens when that changes. Today's conversation is not just about education, it's about access, equity, and the power to transform lives one book at a time. Welcome to the Road to an Effective Classroom Environment, where we bridge the gap between vision and practice and empower educators and leaders to create environments where every learner thrives. I am your host, Dr. Lashonta, also known as that Classy Sassy Consultant. And today's episode is one that speaks directly to the heart of global impact and leadership beyond the classroom. Today I have the honor and the pleasure of speaking with a visionary leader who didn't just see a problem, he responded with a purpose. Coach Roy, affectionately known as Coach Roy, is the founder and board president of the Libraries for Kids International, an organization that has distributed over 1.4 million books. That is impressive. And established libraries in underserved schools across multiple countries. His work is a powerful reminder that leadership is not about position, but it's also about impact. Coach Roy, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you, LaConde. I think I need to hire you as uh my speech trader.
SPEAKER_00My um vote for uh services, sure. You're very eloquent. Thank you, sir. Thank you, and thank you for being here today. So we're gonna you know get jump jump right into this conversation because I am excited about the conversation and I know that the audience that they will enjoy what you have to share because what you're doing is um powerful and impactful word. So I want you to take us back to the moment that this mission became personal for you. What did you see or experience that made you say, I have to do something about this? And what was the even going back? What was the this? We know that you have helped with putting books into the hands of children in underserved countries, but what was what was the this? And then what made you say that you needed to do something? What touched your heart?
SPEAKER_02How much time do you have, Shonda? Oh no, I uh I went on a safar in 2018. Uh, I went to see the animals, that's all I was interested in. You know, I wanted to see the animals in the wild while they're still in the wild. And the tour included a lot of cultural experiences, which to be honest with, I didn't care about. I just want to see the animals. And but what I discovered, we were in five countries over for five weeks, and I discovered that I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with the people in Botswana and Zambia and Zimbabwe and Kenya and Tanzania. Great people, very welcoming, super kind. And but we visited a school in rural Kenya that was primarily for a village of Maasai. Masai is one of the tribes in Kenya. There's actually 42 tribes in Kenya, and it sits at the at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, the top, tallest mountain in Africa, so it's kind of scenic. And we visited the school and you know, sat, talked with the kids and everything. But somebody in the tour group asked the teacher, Do you have a library? And the teacher's name is Anna Tayahi, and Anna's face lit up and she smiled, she said, No, but we'd love to have a library. And I couldn't stop thinking about that. Like I it just wouldn't leave my mind. I mean, how hard can this be? We'll get some books vote donated and we'll ship them over there. So when I came back home in 2019, I went through the process of setting up a nonprofit, and we got our IRS exemption in May of 2019. And initially, we just mailed some boxes of books through the post office. I never thought this would go beyond mailing boxes of books to that one school, but and I'll spare you the long version, but we started getting connected to other schools, and we started mailing more boxes, and then we found out that we could uh partner with an organization called Books for Africa and ship 40-foot containers, and so in December of 2020, we shipped our first container load. We have now shipped 31 containers, almost a million and a half books. And those books have gone into 12,000 schools in Kenya and 85 schools in Uganda. Wow. But that so that's touching the lives of roughly three million children who had no books before. And let me give you a little description of what it's like to go to school in the rural areas. We don't supply the city schools. I mean, Nairobi, Kenya, the capital, is a city the size of Atlanta. It's six million people.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02They have libraries, they have computers, they have tablets, they have all the electronics. You get in the rural areas, there's none of that. The government gives the schools very little support, ten dollars and fifty cents per student per year, and that has to cover the cost of buying textbooks, teaching supplies, building maintenance, support staff like cooks or security people. So, of course, parents have to pay fees for their kids to go to school. The parents are generally uh subsistence farmers or pastoral herders, so they don't have much money. So a lot of times only one child can go to school, and they don't go continuously. Right now, you might you might find a 13-year-old in your second grade uh because they have they can only go to school when their their family chores with the family business of the cattle, sheep, and joke jokes or with the subsistence farms allows them to. So they might go you know for one or two semesters, go back to their family work, come back later. So uh it's it's very different kind of school. The kids generally, not always, but generally speaking, have to walk four to six kilometers through open territory, and I say open because there are animals out there. This is the rural area, so the kids tend to walk in groups for safety. I'm I'm not aware that there was ever an animal attack on any of them, but still it's it's a very different environment. You get to school, you may or may not have a concrete floor, you may just have a dirt floor. In general, 20 to 30 kids have to share one textbook because the government, you know, uh doesn't get them enough money to replace them. Uh, it's been interesting to watch kids that they will take a book and and maybe it's on social studies or English or whatever, and they'll read a little bit about it and then they'll pass it to the next kid who will do some. So it's a tough process. Oftentimes the only teaching supply that the teacher has is a blackboard, but it's really not a blackboard, it's just a wall painted black.
SPEAKER_00Right, right. That's what some of our classroom teachers in the US do at times.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I mean, it's rudimentary, and it's also interesting that when children come to school, they're speaking their tribal language. Like I said, there's 42 different ethnic tribes in Kenya, uh, many more in other countries, and so when they come to first grade, they're speaking Masai, and then they learn English and Swahili. Those are the two primary languages in Kenya. And by about middle school, they're trilingual, and they can they speak, you know, in spite of the fact that that they're sharing the textbooks, they have virtually oftentimes nothing to write with or to write on. But I think maybe because they don't have all the distractions of things, then they have to remember things better. So they're very impressive in their English skills, you know, when they're about fourth, fifth, sixth grade. But in most cases, the schools that we have put books in had no books. Not always, but in most cases. And so these are the first books that these kids have ever seen. And I mean, I've visited 40 schools so far, and when you hand a child a book that has never seen a book before, and they open it up and their eyes just get wide and they start to see the world completely differently. We give them storybooks, of course, but we also give them reference books for supplemental learning, so to speak. So it expands what the teacher can do because now the teacher can say to the child, you know, go to the library, which is usually a few shelves in the teacher's office, and come back and and recite a story about penguins or polares or giraffes or whatever. So it gives the teachers an additional resource to supplement their their education, so it enhances their experience in many different ways. And I've I've had the pleasure of speaking with a lot of kids and a lot of teachers and and developed a lot of friendships as a result because the first time I went, I had learned to speak a little Swahili. I'm certainly not fluent. I can ask where the bathroom is.
SPEAKER_00And that's important.
SPEAKER_02That's important.
SPEAKER_00I I don't know. That might be more important for for me as a female. I don't know about guys.
SPEAKER_02Well, then you know when you get out into the villages, sometimes the bathroom is really just a hole in the ground.
SPEAKER_00Gotcha. Well, okay. Well, you have definitely shared quite an experience and to and you visited over 40 schools, you said.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That is very impressive. And it seems so just listening to you, it sounds like you have a passion and a love for what you're doing because you are you are engaging with not only the students when you visit, but you're you're speaking with the teachers and you're going back. How many, how many trips have you done so far? Seven. About seven trips.
SPEAKER_02So I will I'm going back in May and June, and then again in November.
SPEAKER_00Wonderful experience. So May of 2019 started the nonprofit.
SPEAKER_02That's when we got our IRS exemption. But so this is now this is not a whole lot took place until we you know started shipping containers.
SPEAKER_00Correct. I got you. Well, what were some of the what were some of your struggles? Did you have any struggles early on when you began the nonprofit? Were there any obstacles that kind of came up that stand out to you? Uh not not really.
SPEAKER_02I mean, people that tell me I told me I was crazy. This will never work. Books are too expensive to ship, and they'll get stolen when they go through customs. Well, uh, which far as we know, we've never lost a book. Apparently, there is there is no black market for used books. So there's there's not enough reward to try to steal them. And so that that didn't prove true. But you know, I I live by a few very simple philosophies. Um, one is everything is figure-outable. So I had a guy tell me a long time ago I was doing work for a halfway house for convicted felons back in Kingsport, Tennessee, Tennessee. And we went to Memphis to to look at a program down there. And I started to ask this this man a whole bunch of questions, and he got half a word out of his mouth, and he said, Roy, just resolve that no matter what you do, if it's worthwhile, you will have problems, and resolve that you will solve those problems as they occur. So I can sort of condensed that to focus on the objective, not the obstacle.
SPEAKER_00That's a wonderful way to look at it. Because if we if we stay focused on obstacles, then we would never get to our objective.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I I think a lot of people have great ideas about things that could be done, but their their mind starts thinking of all the potential problems. So you you just deal with them a little as you go. And and you know, as we've grown, we have learned more and more about and how to do things better, how to be more efficient, how to cut costs, how to set up uh systems to get feedback from teachers as to the impact that the books are having. It's all a just a learning process.
SPEAKER_00It is, and I'm I'm so glad that you didn't let those naysayers get in the way of what you wanted to do. So kudos to that, because sometimes we can get you know trapped in the weeds and and not want to continue the idea and progress further because you have so many people saying what you can't do, but you definitely show them that you had it, you got it, and you did it, and you're still doing it.
SPEAKER_02Well, what really happened though was God surrounded me with an amazing group of people, both here and and over in Kenya and Uganda. When I first had the idea, I mentioned it to the minister at my church. And he said, Oh, this is your ministry. And I said, No, Joey, this was just an idea that I had. But I've come to understand that you know this was not my idea. God planted this seed because I have no background in education other than being educated, right? And every time I turned around, he was supplying amazing people. Yeah, I I could spend a couple hours telling you about our operations coordinator in Kenya. She's amazing. Our CEO and my ultimate successor is a young lady named Laura Winkle. She's only 38. So she she went with me in 2023 and fell in love with the mission and the people and the in the kids. And so eventually she will take over, but she's implementing systems and procedures I never would have dreamed about. So, you know, when God surrounds you with amazing people, amazing things happen.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. I I wholeheartedly agree. And so you you realize how far in your journey, how far in the journey did you realize that this mission was bigger than you?
SPEAKER_02Uh it took me a while. But and it was it was a gradual process, it wasn't a you know a sudden epiphany. Um, but as I started to look backwards and see all the doors that were opening and the people that we were being introduced to. You know, it's for instance, our operations coordinator in Kenya is a lady named Wanjiku Francis. We nickname her Siku. And she responded to an ad I had to for a website. And I had a lot of qualified people that offered proposals, but she lived in Kenya. And so I hired her, she did a nice job on the website, and then she started connecting us to schools. Awesome. And now she leads the team to get books delivered. And and if I ever sent you, she gives us a report every time she goes on on a uh trip to deliver books. And keep in mind, Kenya's almost the size of Texas, so it's not a small place, right? It doesn't look very big on the map, but trust me, Africa is a lot bigger than than I ever realized. Oh, yeah. And but her adventures getting books delivered it would make a book in themselves. But her process is that when the books arrive, they're all stamped libraries for kids not for sale, so that we will not be accused of trying to import books into Kenya and sell them and make a profit. That would be a different set of duties, right? And then she sorts them all by uh subject and uh grade level. She then has to meet with uh directors of education in each of the counties she's going into. There's 47 counties, and determine what the literacy level is in that account because it varies tremendously. So she then she's got to make sure that the books she's gonna take into that county are not over the heads of the kids, but they're also not well below their reading level.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02So, and then she will take a truck with a bunch of books, several boxes, find a central location in the county, and then hire motorcycle drivers who will put four boxes of books, they each weigh 35 pounds, uh, onto the back of a motorcycle and get them delivered to a rural school.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_00That is an extensive process right there. Yeah, but it sounds so very detailed all the way up to the the delivering to the individual schools. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02And there have actually been some schools that the books had to be hand delivered because even the motorcycles couldn't get through to them.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow.
SPEAKER_02Uh so it's been amazing. I was there with my granddaughter in uh 2022 and my and my daughter also, and we visited a couple schools. We were the first white people those kids had ever seen. Uh and I didn't do something. And and my granddaughter is blonde, and of course, all they want, they all wanted to touch and feel her hair. Yeah, and she loved it. She was just thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.
SPEAKER_00But but that that is wonderful. And I and we've talked about your your people, Seiko and Laura and the others being in a another episode, because as you've said, it's not just you behind this, but you have a team of people that you work with who are helping to bring this mission to help it to keep going on. So would love to have them on uh at a at a later date in time. So just to continue this conversation.
SPEAKER_02So there are there are a lot more than that. Um but uh those are two of the the main ones, and of course, now we've got a man named David Mabanga who is in Uganda and he's coordinating efforts there, and he's he's the director of uh YMCA there and president of his rotary club there.
SPEAKER_00Okay, you got it going on. I love it. I love it. I just I love all of it. So let's continue to talk a little bit about help helping our listeners to understand the scope of the work that you're doing and you. Kind of touched on this a little bit, but just tell me what does a library mean for a child in a community with limited or no access to books? So you've kind of you've touched on your experience with your your your daughter and your granddaughter in in that school, those children seeing someone who didn't look like them for the first time. And you talked about the books and how some of the some of the schools that books have been delivered to for most of them, they hadn't seen books and just how that how their eyes lit up and and seeing those books. But how does this help to transform the lives of the children and the communities and just having these libraries instilled in these classrooms? What changes are you seeing or have seen? Well, let me let me start with probably my favorite story.
SPEAKER_02I was talking to a 13-year-old boy, I think he was in fifth or sixth grade, and we had a nice little conversation, you know, how old are you, you know, and and you know, tell me about your family and all that small talk. And I and I asked him what his favorite subject was, and he said, science. And I went on and said, and he told me that he wanted to be an engineer. And I asked him, I said, Well, how did the books help you? And he was very thoughtful, and he and then he said, I when the book before the books came, he said the signs I was failing science. Now it's his favorite subject. But he went on to say, and this was the real thing because I think it's representative of all the kids. He said the books opened up my the world to me. All he knew was his little village. In a lot of cases, that's a mud and stick hut village. And now, wait a minute, the books, I see a whole different world out there, a whole world of possibilities. We visited, Laura and I visited a school in 2023, and she went around the room with her iPad and asked each child what they wanted to be when they grew up. What was their dream? And of course, like all kids, they wanted to be nurses and doctors and lawyers and pilots and engineers and whatever. But what was impressive was each one of them said they went on to say why that was their particular dream. They wanted to be a doctor because they wanted to be a pilot because, and every single one of them, it was to serve other people, and that is really a very integral part of the culture over there. I've only been in eight countries, so I can't say that this is true in every country, but the ones that I've been in, they're very oriented towards helping each other. I think some of that comes from the fact when you live in a rural village, you have a subsistence farm that animals can come eat your eat your produce. You have cattle, sheep, and goats, and you know, you gotta to guard them from uh predators. But so everybody works together to help everybody else. And that's uh an interesting difference, I think. Whereas unfortunately, in this United States, it's more about what can I do for me? Right, how is this gonna help me? And I think I I won't say everybody's that way over there. Obviously, I've only met a small sample, but but that seems to be the impression that I get that uh they are oriented to try to help each other. But the when you talk to the teachers and ask them, you know, what's the impact been? Well, they'll say enrollment's up. Kids like to come in early to read. The minute class ends, if they don't have to rush home, they're making a beeline for where the library books are. English skills have improved. Our CQ has set up uh book clubs to help the kids with their English. She's got a daily procedure, so at the end of each day, they take 10 or 15 minutes and have a set thing, you know, pick out a word in a book and look it up in the dictionary. And then so she's got something for them to do each day. So all that's happened, and one of the schools, I've only heard this once. Hopefully, it happens elsewhere, where the teacher said parents are coming in in the evening to get more education now that there are books.
SPEAKER_00And that's awesome.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely a good thing to see to have parents coming in and putting the knowledge just as their children. And I would see some of that in schools that I've worked in and Title I schools, we would have parent resource rooms set up so that parents come in, look at use our our computers to access looking for jobs and also taking courses. So that that whole sense of wanting to learn and that thirst for knowledge to improve to improve themselves. That is that speaks volumes. It does. Definitely speaks volumes. So let's talk a little bit about let's let's look at education in general and tell me what do most people misunderstand about education in underserved global communities? What do you think one of the biggest misconceptions or they they misunderstand?
SPEAKER_02When it when it comes to Africa, most people know very little about Africa.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02We weren't taught a lot about Africa in school or even in college unless it was about Egypt.
SPEAKER_00Correct.
SPEAKER_02And and so there's a lot of misunderstanding about Africa because the only time you he see stories on the news, they're not good stories. They're not newsworthy if if some kids in Nigeria aren't getting kidnapped. But when you so I've had the most common question I get is it is it safe over there? And we live in a country that averages two mass shootings a day. This is true. This is true. So where are you safe? You know, and and people say, well, there's snakes over there. Well, there's snakes. There's there's insects over there. Yep, there's insects here. I mean, there's there's probably and and oh, there's diseases, there isn't a single disease in Africa that is also does not exist, it also exists in the United States, right? You know, but when they have an outbreak of Ebola in in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it makes news.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02And everybody says, Oh my god. So, you know, when I when I went to Uganda last year for the first time, my friend said, Oh, you don't want to go there. I said, Why not? Well, that's where Edie Amin was, he was a brutal dictator. I said he was deposed in 1980 45 years ago, but you remember the negative things, correct? And I think the positive thing is that the people are are really wonderful. Obviously, I haven't met them all.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02I've I've been in the slums of Nairobi, and and it's a tough place to live. But generally speaking, everybody that I've met so far has just been warm and friendly and welcoming. So I don't know if I answered your question or if I got off on a tangent, I tend to do that.
SPEAKER_00So you you answered the question, and I'm sitting here thinking about you know what you're saying, because you know, there's that that fear factor with with us, and and when I say us, just people in general, where if you don't have enough knowledge about something or someone, or you have just those negative images in your mind that you keep that you keep that as as your truth. It's not the truth, but your truth. And everything that you just said, there are diseases there, there are diseases here. You know, uh everything that is happening with in in those countries, United States deals with the same thing. But do you feel do you feel like there is more that fear of people who do not look like you?
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm sure that that's I've got I've got one friend that says I don't I'm uncomfortable being around poverty.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Well, define poverty. I mean, to me, there's a difference between low income and poverty. Poverty in my mind is a state of mind, it's an attitude, it's a hopelessness. I love that. Well you you don't you don't believe that you can accomplish anything in life.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Low income is a different story, and by our standards, yeah, they they have very low income. But I their the lifestyles, and here again, I'm only speaking about the rural communities, their lifestyle is such that in many ways they're a lot happier than we are. Uh and by the way, in in most African countries, the civilians do not have guns, they're not allowed.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02So so there's not you I won't say there's no violence, but there's it's rare that there be gun violence. Correct. At least in the countries that I've been in.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02But they're people are happier, I think, because to give you an example, when they sit down to dinner, when I go and I visit with my Maasai friends and I sit down to have lunch with them. We talk. They may dance, they'll tell stories, they communicate. Yeah, we don't communicate that much in this country anymore. We're all got our heads in our tablets. Correct. You know, I was I was driving home the other day, and I saw this this guy on a bicycle going down the sidewalk reading his cell phone while he's riding a bicycle. Oh my goodness. And I'm thinking, this is an accident looking for a place to happen.
SPEAKER_01It is.
SPEAKER_02I mean, how how important if it's so important that you need to look up your phone, stop and get off your bike.
SPEAKER_00I mean exactly. Technology has has turned, has, has definitely had its benefits in in education and in in our life in general. But it has taken away like that sense of community. Um, I was I was talking with a colleague before uh I went out on spring last week, was my spring break. Thoroughly enjoyed it. But the week prior, I was talking with a colleague about how in the black and brown communities where that sense of community is is not there as it once was when our parents and our because I'm a gen Gen Xer, so when our uh parents and grandparents, when they were raising raising us, there was more of a sense of community.
SPEAKER_02And so technology has kind of impacted that piece just within in all communities, but but I I see a lot in the black and brown communities and how there's I think it's just as true in the white community. I I grew up in a community, you know, and then of course I'm pretty old, so I'm talking about growing up in the in the 50s, and yes, we did have television, but we certainly didn't have cell phones or you know, tablets or anything like that. And the whole community that I lived in, everybody knew everybody.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02It was it was much closer together. You had community events, you know, Fourth of July celebrations or Christmas tree singing.
SPEAKER_00You can leave your box.
SPEAKER_02So you don't see that a whole lot anymore.
SPEAKER_00No, you really don't. But I'm glad to know that you have have seen just how how happy the people are in those in those um African countries, because many times they it's not depicted that way on television. And even when in in our school systems, I was a social studies teacher. And I say I was, I'm not in the classroom, but that's that was my area. And so in talking, I love talking about eastern cultures and and talking about when it was time to get into the eastern civilizations and talking about those uh different tribes and groups that came through the Sahara and and talking about the uh Nubians, I got excited because I never learned about the Nubians until I had to teach the concept and teach about the people. So just that whole sense of community we've kind of gotten away from in all races that we're saying, we've we've kind of gotten away from that. And it's great to see that that sense of community is in those different countries, and that the children as well as the parents and the teachers, they look forward to those books coming in and it and how it's changing their lives.
SPEAKER_02But you know, just to kind of follow up a little bit about some of the ways that Africa is misunderstood. From where I live, I'm not far from Savannah, Georgia. So from Savannah to Los Angeles is 2,400 miles. From Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa is 6,400 miles. If you go windways across Africa, across the Horn, it's 4,000 miles. So somebody says, Well, did you read about that thing that happened in Nigeria over on the on the East Coast? I said, You realize that was 3,000 miles from where I am? You know, I don't think I'm in a lot of danger. Right, right. Any any more than you know, if we hear about some some murders or a mass shooting that took place in Los Angeles, and we live here on the East Coast, right? We're probably not gonna feel afraid for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00Correct. And and that's a great comparison. That's a great way to put it in perspective for for folks to understand. Because I think, well, not think, I know with how our maps, our children are learning about these maps, and the maps are still distorted. It really doesn't give you a true size. So unless you are teaching about those miles, you know, how far apart and doing those comparisons, then our our students were not understanding just how, and not just our students, even the adults, they're not understanding just how much of a distance it is between one end of the continent to the other end.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, you make it you make a good point because when I do uh educational programs uh for groups or for school children, I've got a rubber ball that's a world globe, shows all the countries. The maps you generally see have taken that round earth and flattened it. When you flatten something, and you can test this out if you you know have a ball and you push on it, it distorts the images that are on there.
SPEAKER_01It does.
SPEAKER_02So if you look at that flat map, it looks like Greenland's almost the size of Africa when in reality it's only 14% the size of Africa.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02So I mean, most so Africa is misunderstood from the standpoint of a lot of people, you know. I've had people say, How was the jungle? I said, I don't know, I haven't been in any jungle, you know, or wasn't it all desert? No, there are parts that are deserts. Every ecosystem in Africa we have here in the United States.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02So I mean, in a lot of ways, it's it's it's unfortunate. And I and and I've you know, I'll be honest, when I went the first time, I was a little apprehensive. I'm going into a place that I know very little about, not knowing any people over there. And so it's easy for me now, having been there seven times, right, and and looking forward to going back and and having lunch with uh the Messiah elder that I got to know there, Ntimama, and meeting his family when I was there uh in 2024. Why we had the privilege of arriving three days after his wife had given birth, and so we got to see and hold the baby. So I mean, I sort of feel like they're my my family over there. So it's so I've developed a lot of friendships with people over there, and of course, it taught me the the same lesson that I had learned when I was in Vietnam. The army gave me an all-expense paid tour. But I got to know a lot of Vietnamese people, and people are the same everywhere, they are, they have different customs, different ways of doing things, but they all have hopes and dreams and loves and fears and habits and so forth. So in essence, it doesn't matter what color you are or where you live, you are a person that is the same as other people. You just have there's different ways you do things. There's some things in in Asian cultures you do not do, you do not pat a Buddhist child on the head, which is a common thing for Americans to do. But the Buddhists re believe that uh the soul resides in the head, and if you tap the head, yeah, you've released the soul, and the parents will disown the child.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_02So I it's a different custom, but yes, they still, you know, they still work uh or farm or whatever to make a living. They still I had one person tell me about the, you know, he was talking about China, and he said, Well, they don't value life over there that the way we do. And I said, Do you think a Chinese parent doesn't love their children? Doesn't value their life?
SPEAKER_00Of course they do. But that that goes back to going back to historically some things that had been seen in the Chinese culture, if the firstborn wasn't a male, some of the tactics that was being done if it was a female child. But those things are not, you know, are not prevalent like that now. But again, holding on to you know, knowledge that is archaic. But I applaud you for taking that first step, because even with you sharing, you were apprehensive and going for the first time, but that's what it takes, the first step. And if more people would look at themselves, and and if they're trying to see if they want to experience someone from a different culture or just have a new experience in general, all it takes is that first step, and that first step, once you take it, and you you're gonna fall in love with with that experience. So you you know, you may find out this is not for me, but at least you've taken the first step, and that's all we need to do in life is not to be afraid. And and you you stepped out on faith and you went and you did it, and now you have a whole nother family of people that you that you call um brothers and sisters, and right. So that that is awesome, very awesome. I I told you this this is this is good stuff, everyone. This is a great interview. I'm hoping that you are getting these jewels and that you listen to this over and over again because uh the information here, this is very powerful. And um, again, applauding you, Coach Roy, for the work that you've been doing. So, talk a little bit to the people and tell them how they can be a part of this work. Um, when someone wants to donate, what are they actually, you know, doing? and and to make that possible.
SPEAKER_02Well you really opened up the door for me there, didn't you, Lashanta?
SPEAKER_00I did. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's it's a question that I love to hear, you know. If people want to donate, they can go to our website. It's the libraries the number four kids.org. And so there's lots of opportunities there. As I mentioned to you before we started that we've got a big fundraiser event coming up a week from Saturday on April 25th here in the in the Bluffton Buford area. Tickets are available until Wednesday. And again they can be purchased on the website. So if some of your listeners are in the area would like to see more we've got a very special evening planned. Laura says she's got some things planned that she's not telling me about so I don't know what's up her sleeve. So she's really got my curiosity up but but she's done it we're expecting about 150 people which is up significantly from last year. So and it it's interesting when Laura took over this event it it uh the the first time we only raised $5500 and when she took it over she said her goal was $100,000 and we all thought well that's nice nice goal. But she raised $105. See and last year $150. So our our hope is that this year we can raise enough money to ship uh eight more containers it costs roughly door to door from our partner's warehouse in Marietta Georgia to a rural school about $25,000 per container that works out to 63 cents a book so it's it's it's doing it in bulk quantities containers average maybe 43000 books in a container so obviously you know we we're looking for money just like every other nonprofit out there.
SPEAKER_00But but we do have volunteer opportunities and so uh if somebody wants to particularly we we need some volunteer help at the event so in the morning to set up and then after the event to to take it down but there we have other smaller events throughout the year but one of the biggest things that people can do and it doesn't cost anything is to sign up for our newsletter which when you go to our website libraries the number fourkids.org the little pop-up box will appear for you to sign up for the newsletter it's a monthly newsletter and it keeps you abreast of what we're doing the new things that are coming on the new countries that we are hoping to go into but not only does that help the subscriber keep up with us but if they would share that newsletter with their friends and which raises awareness of us that's a huge exactly exactly the power of sharing because we're we're not in this alone and in order to to get to where we want to be and the goals that you have for your nonprofit it entitled of course money money makes the world go around and we know it's about money but we also have those connections and wanting to and just be helpful and just subscribing to the newsletter that's a that's a small start and then if you feel those of uh my listeners if you feel invested in this please be sure to go to the website and I know that Coach Roy and all of those that work alongside him and with him would dearly appreciate any donations that would be going forward worthy cause so so just a couple of final thoughts I want you to to just share a little bit looking ahead what is your vision for the future of this work and I know you've talked about your successor and and all the plans that she has in place but what are some things right now for the future that what is your vision well you know as we initially I always thought what send books to one school so the vision has grown as the the organization has grown and it's hard to believe we've come so far in just the last six years.
SPEAKER_02But we've been getting connected to other countries. So our supplier Books for Africa is basically a warehousing and logistics company they get hundreds of thousands of donated books they load them in containers based on the type of books that we order and they arrange all the logistics to get it to an African country and clear through customs most of their containers go to city schools but since their founding in 1988 they have shipped over 64 million books to all 55 countries in Africa so long long term if they can over 35 years if they can get into 55 countries why can't we?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Yep we are kind of an extension of what they do they will ship to an address anywhere in Africa but when it gets there somebody's got to do something with it.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02And that's that's where we come in is to get the books you know once they're they're arrived get them off the containers and get them delivered to rural schools. Right now we've got several countries on our radar we've been talking with Tanzania I'm gonna be meeting with some Rotarians there in June I'm gonna be meeting with some Rotarians in Rwanda at the beginning of my trip in May we've had some discussions with Zambia. One of our board members is originally from Ghana he's been in this country for quite some many years but he recently went back to Ghana in December to tend to some family matters and uh so he's developing contacts there. We have a contact in Namibia that's very interested in us bringing books and we've also had a Zoom call last week with a group that would like us to send books to Somaliland and Ethiopia. So there's lots of possibilities once we get the money to take advantage of exactly but but you know we're building the contacts and we're using rotary clubs wherever we can because the and and we're trying to get a Rotary international grant that's a long process but Rotarians are and I I am one but they're really uh worldwide a great group of people to work with but it's a start you know to find because for us to go into another country we have to have a team there we have to have a person that's going to coordinate that and work with it. And it has to be people that we can trust like I say the the risk of of losing books is is pretty minimal because they can't sell them for much of anything.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02So I mean so there's no point in stealing something that you really can't sell. But you still want to have a team that will make sure to get things to to rural schools and again Laura set up a lot of protocols to get feedback from the teachers to get information about the schools that we go into how many students are there you know what's the the male female ratio most of the schools I've been in there's more girls than boys. And some of the this has nothing to do with your question but it just popped into my head but when when I was there in 2022 they were having the elections in Kenya. Kenya is a democracy they elect their president their vice president and senators and representatives and county governors by law in Kenya 30% of parliament has to be women so we saw all these campaign posters of women running for the seat from their county powerful so interesting yeah I mean and it's one of those things that you would never know unless you actually went there because that's not something that's gonna to gain international news of course but I think it's um a powerful testament to what kind of countries they are over there. I won't say they're all that way I haven't been in all of them. Correct I'm gonna add two more this year but Madagascar is another one I'm hoping to set up a meeting with some people at the end of my trip in November.
SPEAKER_00Awesome connections and I and I wish you blessings and and everything that you continue to do. And this has been a as I said I knew I was going to love this conversation I could I could listen to you for a few few more hours so it it will be great to have a part two whether you uh pop in or if it's just uh some of your team members but this is definitely a conversation we're um continuing to have and I want you to leave the audience with one final thought what is one thing that you want to leave one phrase that you want to leave with them that will help them to understand the the impact of the work well not not so much the impact of the work but what can you do to serve when I went to Africa in 2018 I was 74 years old and I thought now I'm 82 and a lot of people say well I'm too old to start something and to be honest with you I thought God will never give me a project in Africa because I'm too old I was wrong there is always something that you can do no matter how small it all makes a difference whether it's you know I we have in the community I lived in they they were doing a collection called Change for Change and they were asking people to collect their loose coins and we'll put it in a fund and they'll donate that to backpack buddies and you know and the guy said we're not doing anything like you're doing I said but you're doing something important.
SPEAKER_02Right I know a lot of people that that retire and all they want to do is play golf and they've got all this wonderful knowledge and experience but they're not using it. They're not sharing it so whether it's big or small right my uh I guess my parting words would be get off your behind and uh find find something to do.
SPEAKER_00There's always tons of volunteer opportunities I know in this area there's uh an amazing number of nonprofits that address a lot of really important needs and everybody has their own favorite nonprofit or their own favorite cause libraries for kids cause may not be may not be for sorry about that it may not be somebody's caught it may be but whether it is or it's not find something that you believe in where you can make a an an and a lasting impact exactly thank you so much Coach Roy thank you for being on the show thank you for sharing all of your knowledge with us today and I want to uh leave our audience with this here's what you all want to understand you don't have to build a nonprofit to make an impact as Coach Roy has has said you simply have to decide to support one or to be the change to volunteer today you have an opportunity to help place books into the hands of children who need the most I encourage you whether it's a monthly donation an annual partnership or simply sharing this message do something no matter how little you think it is or how grandiose it may be just do something because access changes everything. So I want to thank Coach Roy for being on today I want to thank you all for listening. Thank you for joining us on the road to an effective classroom environment if this episode moved you share it with a colleague a leader or an organization that believes in impact and remember effective environments don't happen by chance they are built with intention until next time continue to thrive and read have a great thank you
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