Today the Embassy of Taiwan presented WorldTeach with $480 for a class book. They chose the topic of solar power, which will be a great asset to Marshallese children and families since Taiwan has already donated many solar-powered technologies to Marshallese living in the outer atolls. Today, in fact, Ambassador of Taiwan George T. K. Li signed an agreement with the government of the Marshall Islands concerning the donation of many solar-powered laptops and computers.

This is not the first time the Embassy has provided help to the outer islands of the RMI; many Marshallese in the outer islands have small reading lamps donated by the Embassy, lamps that function using solar power.

Many thanks, Ambassador George T. K. Li and the Embassy of Taiwan! We are looking forward to teaching the children about solar power and helping them to turn around and teach many others through their class book. The Ambassador strongly supports education and we are grateful for his support of the project.

Other organizations wishing to donate and choose a topic can do so before July 25, 2012, before the WorldTeach volunteers begin their training. Sponsored topics will be given out at that time, although we will be fundraising and accepting general donations for the rest of the year.

Lauren Pallotta, amazing artist and former WorldTeach volunteer and Field Director, is supporting The Unbound Bookmaker Project! Purchase prints of her art pieces "Heita" or "Ido," which feature her students from Airok (Ailinglaplap Atoll), and $10 of the proceeds will be directed to the project. Thank you, Lauren!

Click on the images to go to Lauren's Etsy shop.

The Important Book about Majuro by Mr. Savu's fourth grade class is now available for sale on Amazon.com. Click here to see it!

The book costs $8.42, which is the at-cost price (60 full-color pages). We do not receive any royalties on any of the children's books, so please be sure to donate on our designated WorldTeach donation page.

We hope you enjoy the book! Anybody who has spent any time in Majuro will recognize some key elements that the children captured

This morning Laura Sundblad and I were interviewed by Heather Jarvis, a journalist for Radio Australia. We spoke about how the project got started, and how the pilot project went, and what's going to happen next for the children in the Marshall Islands. We felt it went really well and we were able to express most of the important aspects of the project. If you haven't done it yet, don't forget to donate!

Primary school students write an 'Important Book about Majuro' | ABC Radio Australia

Dear Friends,

We are excited to announce that the body of children’s literature in the Marshall Islands is about to undergo a transformation. For the 2012–2013 academic year, WorldTeach Marshall Islands has partnered with The Unbound Bookmaker, an online publishing business that will take the stories from students all around the Marshall Islands and publish those stories on Amazon.com in the form of a class book. The children will have the opportunity, with the help of their WorldTeach volunteer, to write, revise, edit, illustrate, and finally receive their own copy of the book at the end of the school year.

Additionally, through this project we hope to give children confidence in their creative endeavors and a reason to stay in school. The finished book will give them a sense of pride and accomplishment. Moreover, this is a chance to provide literature for other children in the Marshall Islands (the current number of available Marshallese children’s books can be counted on one hand). The 30 class books will be published in both English and Marshallese.

As we endeavor to provide this authorship experience for up to 900 Marshallese children this year, we ask for your assistance in purchasing supplies (paper and colored pencils) and providing funds for publishing and printing costs so that each child can receive a copy, as well as the local school library.

Donations can be given through our WorldTeach website. Follow This Link to visit the site. The cost of producing and printing class books for around thirty students is $480, and there are 30 WorldTeach volunteers this year. You may consider teaming up with friends to sponsor a class. Donations of any amount are tax-deductible. We also ask that you pass the word along to anyone interested in participating in this wonderful outpouring of new literary and cultural works from those who need it most.

A test run of this project was conducted in May 2012; the result was The Important Book about Majuro, which will be available for purchase on Amazon.com by June 30, 2012. We will receive no royalties from sales, so please make sure to donate if you enjoy the book.

Pictures from the test run at Majuro Cooperative School and powerful short stories written by the children after the book was completed can be found at http://www.unboundbookmaker.com/the-unbound-bookmaker-project.html.

Thank you for supporting literacy in the Marshall Islands. It is a gift that keeps giving.

Laura Sundblad and Todd Mulroy
Field Directors of WorldTeach Marshall Islands

I haven't updated this blog very frequently—too many good things have happened and there's not enough time in the day to chronicle it all. But, I would like to start using this blog to provide updates on how The Unbound Bookmaker Project is coming.

So far, in exactly one week of officially announcing the project, we have earned $418.00 of the requisite $14,000. It's almost enough for one class book ($480). Thanks to everyone who has participated so far.

Yokwe Online has published an article on their website about our project. You can view it here.

Next Thursday afternoon Laura Sundblad—one of the WorldTeach Field Directors—and I will be going on Radio Australia for a live radio interview. We'll talk more about the reasons for the project and how the pilot project at the Majuro Cooperative School went. I will be sure to post a link of the mp3 on this site. We are also working extremely hard to find grants for the project, so if you know of any, please contact us.

Currently we are also asking for various organizations to sponsor one book on a specific topic that pertains to their organization. More on that later.

We've got a long way to go, but we're off to a wonderful start!