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"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions." -Dalai Lama
In many parts of the world, owning a pen or pencil is a luxury that some families cannot afford. It is hard to imagine. Receiving an education without a writing utensil is even harder to imagine. Education can help achieve success and stability in a person’s life but without the basics, it is so much harder.
Right-to-Write is a unique and simple program designed to put spare pens and pencils to good use by collecting and then dispensing them to children in developing countries. Donated pens and pencils are delivered to schools, orphanages, and hospitals by individual volunteers and organizations who can distribute them hand to hand, person to person, to children who need them. Through this effort Right-to-Write achieves many unique positive goals:
- facilitating better education for kids who have very limited resources
- making use of supplies that would otherwise simply accumulate in people's drawers, purses, briefcases etc., or end up wasted and unused in landfills
- promoting positive global alliances and friendships through direct face-to-face contact, made possible by kind travelers who volunteer to become pen and pencil "ambassadors"
- ensuring, through this direct contact and delivery, that these donations actually get to the kids despite frequent problems with corruption and theft in many of these countries
The Right-to-Write program demonstrates how easily each one of us can help people in need throughout the world. Many of us have extra pens and pencils in the back of drawers and on the bottom of bags. Each one of these pen and pencils is representative of a child receiving one more year of education in school. These pens and pencils can easily be collected at small gatherings and parties, through containers left at mom and pop stores, or through school collection drives. As they are collected, approximately 200 pens and pencils at a time are placed in a ziploc bag, which our volunteers - individuals, organizations, or tourists on holiday - can easily fit into their luggage to take with them to their destination. This simple, cost-effective method of assistance produces a tremendously rewarding experience for both the children and the volunteers who make their lives better.
As Right-to-Write grows, we will ask our young pen recipients to show off their writing skills on "homework" postcards that will be included with the delivery. In the near term, children with access to computers will soon be able to contribute feedback here on the website.
In many parts of the world, owning a pen or pencil is a luxury that some families cannot afford. It is hard to imagine. Receiving an education without a writing utensil is even harder to imagine. Education can help achieve success and stability in a person’s life but without the basics, it is so much harder.
Right-to-Write is a unique and simple program designed to put spare pens and pencils to good use by collecting and then dispensing them to children in developing countries. Donated pens and pencils are delivered to schools, orphanages, and hospitals by individual volunteers and organizations who can distribute them hand to hand, person to person, to children who need them. Through this effort Right-to-Write achieves many unique positive goals:
- facilitating better education for kids who have very limited resources
- making use of supplies that would otherwise simply accumulate in people's drawers, purses, briefcases etc., or end up wasted and unused in landfills
- promoting positive global alliances and friendships through direct face-to-face contact, made possible by kind travelers who volunteer to become pen and pencil "ambassadors"
- ensuring, through this direct contact and delivery, that these donations actually get to the kids despite frequent problems with corruption and theft in many of these countries
How It Works
The Right-to-Write program demonstrates how easily each one of us can help people in need throughout the world. Many of us have extra pens and pencils in the back of drawers and on the bottom of bags. Each one of these pen and pencils is representative of a child receiving one more year of education in school. These pens and pencils can easily be collected at small gatherings and parties, through containers left at mom and pop stores, or through school collection drives. As they are collected, approximately 200 pens and pencils at a time are placed in a ziploc bag, which our volunteers - individuals, organizations, or tourists on holiday - can easily fit into their luggage to take with them to their destination. This simple, cost-effective method of assistance produces a tremendously rewarding experience for both the children and the volunteers who make their lives better.
As Right-to-Write grows, we will ask our young pen recipients to show off their writing skills on "homework" postcards that will be included with the delivery. In the near term, children with access to computers will soon be able to contribute feedback here on the website.