Malaysian company Big Bad Wolf (BBW) Books donated 1000 books to the Department of Education (DepEd) and 500 books to INNOTECH on Tuesday to further improve literacy amongst Filipino youth.
“We champion not only reading, we champion education, literacy on the whole,” Lesley Reinares-Almeda, country manager of BBW Books Philippines, told BusinessWorld in an interview.
“After we donate, it’s not for us to feel good, but for us to maintain on being true to our mission of fixing the world one book at a time,” she added.
The donated books, that are fiction, non-fiction, and kids’s stories, will likely be distributed in public schools and the INNOTECH public library in Quezon City.
“Our learners are from pre-school up until college,” Ms. Almeda said. “We attempt to create the books as well based on the needs of the beneficiary.”
Other than the donation, the BBW Books held a two-day book expo, featuring around 300,000 books from international and native publishers, on the INNOTECH L.B. Soriano Hall & Lobby Area from August 26 to 27.
“We wanted it to be accessible and reasonably priced, not only for SEAMEO INNOTECH employees, but across the community of UP Diliman as well,” said the BBW executive.
In keeping with the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS), 93.1% of respondents are basic literate, or can read, write, and compute; nonetheless, only 70.8% are considered functionally literate, or able to understand.
The local statistics agency said that for each nine individuals aged 10 to 64 who can read, write, and compute, two have difficulty with comprehension. – Almira Louise S. Martinez