By Kimberly Killen '10
Assistant Features Editor
Globally, illiteracy is on the decline, yet the number of complete illiterates is growing at a rate of 30 to 50 million people per year. Ninety-eight percent of these people live in developing nations and two-thirds of that percentage is women.
Hands Across the Water is a non-profit organization that targets two problems: domestically, it battles the excess amount of books going to landfills, and internationally, the scarcity of books in needy regions. By collecting books from libraries, schools, homes and individuals, organization aids in the battle against ignorance and illiteracy. So far, the organization has sent five millions books to areas like Haiti, India, the Philippines, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Russia, and Armenia.
In a trip to Kenya with her daughter in 1977, professor emerita Mary Lenihan recalls seeing a young Kenyan man studying chemistry. "His book was a small pamphlet including the ones you get from an insurance company. He was trying to do redox reactions and he didn’t know what an atom was."
In 2000, remembering this trip, Lenihan became involved with Hands Across the Water. "When I heard about Jane Miller [founder] and her 'Hands' I was ecstatic." It began simply with her lab students lending a helping hand. That same year former president Diana Chapman Walsh agreed that the college would buy an ocean container for the project and in February 2001, the group had their first trial collection.
It took one year to fill the container, which is approximately the size of an eight-wheel truck and holds about seven hundred boxes with 30 to 40 paperbacks or a dozen textbooks per box. Since 2001, Lenihan and her volunteers have filled four containers and are currently at work on their fifth. Since retiring, however, Lenihan and company have lost their student contacts here at Wellesley and thus fan into some difficulties accumulating enough books. The group is now mainly powered by the force of the dedicated alumnae and has had to rely on the word of mouth to snare student involvement.
The job for students is simple. First, grab a box. Ask the custodian for one or reuse the one in which your mother sent your latest package. Second, attach a donation sign. The best time of the year to do this is at end of semester when people are cleaning up and clearing out.
The effort is not without reward. "I meet people all through the year," said Lenihan. "We also have libraries donating. One year we received a huge delivery from the Boy Scouts. We get books from people cleaning out their houses, downsizing, and parents who want to get rid of their children’s textbooks."
The Wellesley outfit requests that all books be sent to Africa or other developing nations. The countries that receive these books charge no tariffs or duties. Many people wonder about the benefit of sending English language books to a country that does not understand the language.
However, some countries, like Malaysia, teach their science classes in English and many other nations, such as France and Germany, send containers, too.
Books, says Lenihan, are the foundation of the future. "I feel that until we educate these nations, they are not ready for democracy," said Lenihan, "I just felt that I was so privileged just to see the opportunities we have, especially in comparison to them." Hopefully, Hands Across the Water will be saving books and sending them around the globe for some time to come. But they need student help and involvement. "The greatest reward is to think that these books are helping," said Lenihan.
If you are interested or would like to find out more, please contact Ms. Lenihan via Firstclass as Mary V. Lenihan.