A book can be our best friend. It teaches us much information you did not know and invite you to another world.I think I do not need to explain its advantage because you must know it. Doppo Kunikida, a Japanese famous author. once said “Abandoning reading. This means suicide.”

About language, English is the most used language in the world, you know. I have learned so many things from English books and articles on the Internet, yes, English language makes your world bigger. If you are not native English speaker, it is the best lingua franca. I get some news in Middle East and Africa on English news site. Besides, you can ask people there by yourself using the best lingua franca, English. Therefore, English books are the largest and most particular source of information.

In south Kurdistan, also called as northern Iraq, there is an organisation which aims to build the largest English library. I was asked by my friend to get involved this in February. She said “The idea stemmed from the realization that there was a need for renovating the current education system to create a more solid foundation in which the prospective leaders of tomorrow would graduate from.” She also deplored that there was not enough information for the youth, primarily the scare quantity of English books.

I wanted to help this cause because I loved books and knew advantage of reading English books, besides the organisation was initiated by high school students like me. I promised her to support it, especially raising awareness on the social network. From that day, I began to tweet it, share Vision’s Facebook status, et cetra. I continued these for a few weeks, but I felt the limit. Since I am just a student, I had little money. I thought I could not support Vision to send books or financially by myself alone. I decided to do something locally.

I started to call on my friends and teachers to donate some money to Vision. At first I thought it is enough good to get 3,000 to 5,000 Japanese yen (frankly 38 to 63 US dollars) to buy some books, but they gave me much more money contrary to my expectations. 32 people cooperated and donated nearly 24,000 Japanese yen! (Yes, about 300 US dollars!) It was so much money though most of donators were just students.

I was so impressed. In fact, I was expecting that the donation books will weigh less than 3 kg, but it grew almost 5 kg, the limit of shipping. This was happy miscalculation. In addition, since there was a bit of extra money, I asked Vision’s book collection manager to add “Bushido,” written by Inazo Nitobe, to wishlist because it was one of my favourite books. She gladly accepted my suggestion. That was so sweet of you, Ruwayda!

Finally, I was able to buy 27 books including some English grammar references, a Japanese English dictionary and some books about Palestine, women rights, slaves. I would like youth in Kurdistan to have right knowledge, so I selected these books so carefully that it took a month. But there was a mistake indeed, the Japanese English dictionary included many wrong kanji letters! Some misprints are very funny but I think people who read this, do not understand Japanese, will not understand, sigh. Anyway I was very busy when I selected these books, but also happy because my work would be power of tomorrow leaders. Their slogan is “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” It explains a lot, you know.

This action gave me much precious experience. It taught me kindness of people around me. More than ten people donated 1,000 or over Japanese yen (125 US dollars) and it even reached five times more than expected. Moral of the story: you should do something for someone anyway.

So, I would like you to do something for Vision from now. Sending some books, donating money and so on are appreciated of course, but I know there are people who cannot do them. Do not worry, there is another and easiest way. Please try these steps as follows:

1. Go to Vision Library on Goodsearch.com
2. Click “register” or icon of social networking services.
3. You know what to do. Please register your account following the steps.
4. Make sure to confirm your email and indications which reads “I support Vision Library.”

After you registered GoodSearch.com, you donate 1 US cent per search to Vision when you search something on the Internet by using GoodSearch. There are 270 supporters in this cause for now, and it must grow as many as possible. Please use GoodSearch as many times as you can, the average use aim is set to 7 to 8 searches per day. Now GoodSearch earns more than 245 US dollars. I am looking forward to growing this figure, please please me!

Last but not least, I would like to thank you guys: Lawen Azad, who told me this project as Vision’s communications and relations manager. Without you, I would have not know such an awesome idea. Ruwayda Mustafah, who accepted my wayward request as Vision’s book collection manager. I will never disappoint you owing to my selection, I promise. And my Japanese friends and teachers who cooperated for donation campaign. If it had not been for you guys, I could have done nothing. I really appreciate your generous minds. Last but not least, (Oh, it is like matreshka of “last but not least,”) Sufi Mohamed, who proposed sponsoring Vision’s website. Now the site looks very modern, efficient and cool. Thank you very much for dedicating your time to volunteer. I am really glad to have these kind friends.

External link:
FuturesVision.org — Future Vision’s official website. On this page, you can read my article named “Dear Kurdistan, from Japan with Love.” Also I am introduced as a “Representative in Japan” on its staff page.