Malaysian company Big Bad Wolf (BBW) books donated 1,000 books to the Ministry of Education (DEPED) on Tuesday and 500 to Innotech to further improve literacy among young people in the Philippines.
“We not only advocate reading, we advocate education, general literacy,” Lesley Reinares-Almeda, national manager of BBW books in the Philippines, told Business World in an interview.
“When we donate, it’s not about making us feel good, it’s about us being true to our mission of changing the world at once,” she added.
The donated books are novels, non-fiction and children’s stories and will be distributed in public schools in Quezon City and innotech public libraries.
“Our learners are from preschool to college,” Ms. Almeida said. “We also try to create books based on the needs of our beneficiaries.”
In addition to donations, BBW Books also hosted a two-day book fair, with approximately 300,000 books from international and local publishers in the Innotech LB Soriano Hall & Lobby area from August 26 to 27.
“We want it to be accessible and affordable, not only for Seameo Innotech employees, but also for Diliman’s community,” said BBW executives.
According to the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS), 93.1% of respondents are at a basic literacy rate, or can read, write and calculate; however, only 70.8% are considered functionally literate or able to understand.
The local statistics bureau said that every 9 people aged 10 to 64 can read, write and calculate two people, which two people are difficult to understand. – Almira Louise S. Martinez
