Two New Libraries, in Two Years.
We need your continuing help...
Help us get ready for our next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
Donations to Seraj have been especially strong in this past year. Thank You! We have received in excess of $150,000 since last July 1, 2017 (a record high amount, from 259 donors).
This generous support has encouraged us to be ambitious about establishing two additional libraries, even as we continue our various library & scholarship programs. We have begun work in Tubas and are confirming partnerships with Abu Falah:
Tubas. Our 2018 library will be in Tubas, which will be part of a cluster with the Jiftlek library, as they are only about 30 minutes apart from one another.
Tubas is home to around 17,000, so it will be the largest community with whom we work. We were approached by the village council and it's very active mayor. The village council currently houses a library, which consists of a couple shelves with a few books and two tables. They had heard about Seraj and visited our website, then sent us a proposal and requested a visit from us.
We were very impressed with their enthusiasm and willingness to contribute to the project's success. The town currently has a librarian on staff, which will help to support the library with regular opening hours and activities after we establish it. They would like to establish a library for all ages, and are particularly interested in activities for young adults/university students.
Although it is a large town, Tubas is surrounded by settlements, making it difficult for residents to travel easily to and from other areas of Palestine. They will benefit greatly from an active and thriving library, and we look forward to partnering with this active village council.
Abu Falah is a village of 6,500 people north of Ramallah. If we keep moving forward in this partnership and establish a library there, it will be the third library in the cluster of Al-Mizra Al-Sharqiyyeh and Taybeh. We are particularly excited about this location as the partner organization, the youth club, is like-minded. During our first meeting with them, the president of the youth club said “it’s easy to get funding for roads and buildings but they won’t last, we want to invest in the character and minds of our youth.” Hooray! We have big hopes for this cooperation, and they have already said they want to have competitions between their library and the others in their cluster. Before anything else, we look for partners with the right attitude, and we think we have them here. We would like to finish this library in the second half of 2019.
Seraj US has funds in place to complete the first library, Tubas. But we need to get a head start on Abu Falah.
As we come to the close of our fiscal year (June 30), we are asking for your support. Additional gifts will allow us to follow through on our commitment to libraries # 9 and # 10.
We invite your participation in our Seraj partnerships. The resulting libraries will continue our strong message of empowerment to Palestinian villages and families, just at a time when that message is so important. Thank you. Donate here. Please mark Unrestricted Fund to allocate your donation to our new libraries | 
