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| Above: Volunteer Alicia Gutierrez emerges from her tent in Scott Library’s foyer to raise money for a library in India |
Two students have been eating, sleeping and living in the Scott Library since Saturday to raise money to build libraries in India as part of the Live-in for Literacy Challenge.
The mission is to raise funds to build schools, libraries and other educational infrastructure in developing countries. The goal this year is to raise $20,000 towards the construction of a library in India and the publication of 10,000 local language children’s books, to be accomplished through Room to Read.
Two students, Alicia Gutierrez and Shane Hebel, must eat, sleep and live in the first-floor foyer of York’s Scott Library until this Saturday. During the week they will be raising awareness about Live-in for Literacy and fundraising for the cause. Their experience is being recorded live on a Webcam, to be viewed by audiences around the world.
“We’re within $500 of our goal,” said Gutierrez, Thursday. “And we’re just trying to get a lot of sleep, we’re pretty tired.”
Gutierrez also said it has been difficult trying to raise money during the weeks following the earthquake in Haiti but has been doing her best to persuade donors of the need.
The York effort was organized by student Rabia Abrar.
You can watch the York team live on streaming video right from Scott, and they and other people doing the same live-ins in eight other university libraries are blogging about it all.
For more about York University Libraries’ support for the many kinds of literacy, see their Web pages about information literacy and read their Information Literacy Manifesto.
For more information on Live-in for Literacy, visit their Web site.