Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? Well, here’s something you can do that’s more comfortable and painless and shares your love for reading at the same time.
National Book Store (NBS), in time for its 75th anniversary, hopes to help out public schools around the country with its Read Out Loud Challenge.
Basically, NBS wants you to upload a short video (around a minute or less) of you reading a passage from your favorite book. You then have to challenge three people to do the same. Afterwards, you need to upload to Facebook or Instagram, make sure the posts are set to public (for Instagram, that would mean your account has to be open for all to see). You then need to have the hashtag #ReadOutLoudChallenge and tag NBS in the post as well under their username @nbsalert (here are the Facebook and Instagram links).
For every 75 videos posted, the NBS Foundation will set up a library for a public school, which would include Project Aklat racks with Department of Education-approved books. NBS Foundation’s Project Aklat started back in 2006 and has helped setup over 400 libraries. With the Read Out Loud Challenge, NBS Foundation aims to setup 100 libraries around the country. So, make sure to keep those posts coming. You don’t even have to stop at one post!
At the same time, the NBS Foundation will also launch the 8th year of Project Aral this April 7th in all NBS branches nationwide. Project Aral aims to visit and help over 150 communities who lack basic school necessities. That’s why in this year’s Project Aral, there will be two different kits. The first kit which costs only P25 contains two notebooks, two pencils, a sharpener, and an eraser. The second kit costs P50 and contains two notebooks, two pencils, a sharpener, an eraser, and a pair of slippers—a great gift for children who currently have to make their way to school barefoot.