I have just returned from a rugged bike ride to check on our Guina’ang 1Book project. They say that “One good deed is greater than the grandest intention.” Well, the greatness is even greater when you’ve got hundreds of deeds AND a great intention!
In the village of Guina’ang we have been staging a collaborative drive for 1Books from around the world through the 1Mandala project. Inspired by how we were able to co-create a giant mandala out of tons of individual peace portraits, we decided to apply the concept to a social blessing. The result: almost a thousand books have arrived and over twenty guests from as many countries have visited this remote school.
It has been eight months since I was last able to personally visit the school. The teachers were full of stories about the visitors and the fun and fellowship that had been shared. They were also excited to show me the office chalk board.
The chalk board in their office is where they chart their school’s statistics. Manuela, the principal, was very proud to show me the school’s score on the National Academic Test (NAT). According to her, in the last year, as a direct consequence of book resources, the school has gone from 56.27% to 68.08%.
We weren’t attempting to achieve any quantifiable outputs, but there we go! For me the greatest reward is still to just just watch a class of 40 students, all with a book, read away in silence.
Thanks to everyone who has sent a book or just clicked Like on our page. I am very excited about this form of collaborative artistic blessing. We are busy creating the 1Mandala App to replicate such 1Actions in other places. The Guina’ang 1Action is still up on our site and more books are welcome!
