About us
Who we are
BOOKS for the BARRIOS (BftB) is an all volunteer non-profit organization ( 501 (c) (3), Tax ID #68O241582) that began in 1981 and operates out of its headquarters in the San Francisco East Bay, in Walnut Creek, California.
BftB aims to improve the quality of education for underprivileged youth in deprived communities around the world with our focus being on deprived, depressed regions in the Philippines.
Through our powerful, effective and culturally sensitive programs we continue to empower American children to be leaders in the global community and give the gift of education to millions of children.
Our approach
Our Mission
Our mission is to make sure all children get all the support they need, when they need it, no matter what it is.
BOOKS for the BARRIOS began in 1981 among U.S. Navy families who were stationed in the Philippines. From 1981 to 1986, they worked closely with other knowledgeable, motivated volunteers as well as the U.S. Navy and Philippines Airlines to distribute hundreds of thousands of books throughout the Philippines.
Our Vision
We want to build a world where no child feels alone and gets every possible help they need as soon as possible.
American children play a pivotal role in building and driving the organization’s vision and operations. Growth of the organization into a worldwide project has been through the emphasis of the contribution and critical role of all participants, whether staff or volunteers.
The Problem
Many developing countries are suffering from a “brain drain” losing many of its educated population for opportunities abroad, especially their most qualified teachers. The effects are widespread but strengthening the education is the key element in securing economic development and a better quality of life for citizens around the world.
Three Mission Statements
Statement One
BOOKS for the BARRIOS, Inc. is a not-for-profit, public-benefit California corporation
run completely by volunteers that collects school textbooks, educational learning aids and
devices from schools, publishers and schoolchildren in the United States and delivers them
to remote barrio public schools throughout the Republic of the Philippines. Priority is given
to those schools that are the most deprived and most remotely located without regard for
politics, religion or ethnicity. BOOKS for the BARRIOS, Inc. has developed an efficient
organization of volunteers who turn each dollar of financial support into $100 worth of
educational materials placed into the hands of the teachers and students most in need. BftB
also provides professional teacher training programs to advance the instructional
technology of the national educational delivery system. Selected severely deprived public
schools are transformed and maintained as world-class learning institutions that set the
national standard. BftB organizes U.S. schoolchildren to participate as a humanitarian
service project. The corporation is the largest of its kind working in the Philippines, having
brought a brighter future to 10,000 eager pupils each week for the past forty years.
Statement Two
The children of the rain forests and remote islands of the Philippines receive high-quality
learning books from their American classmates at a cost of a nickel per child. Each dollar
donated to BOOKS for the BARRIOS results in $100 worth of educational resources
delivered to lesser-advantaged children in the developing world, providing their only
defense in the struggle against poverty and environmental deprivation.
Statement Three
BOOKS for the BARRIOS helps American Special Forces troops build girl’s schools in
remote conflict areas in the developing world. Bay Area schoolchildren reuse their
education opportunity for the ecology of the human spirit of disadvantaged children. Each
dollar contributed causes high-quality learning books to be sent to twenty eager young
scholars for whom literacy is their only weapon in their struggle against poverty and social
deprivation
Model School Program
The BftB Model School program transforms selected large, severely deprived elementary schools into world-class institutions of learning by development of curriculum and instruction backed by resource materials and consulting from BftB.
Our BftB Donor Children’s Program is an outstanding vehicle for American students to express their compassion. Thousands of youngsters have conducted reuse donation drives at their schools. Their teachers report that the children were profoundly transformed by their experience.
