As long-time friends Riveen and Henry had partnered in many projects together, but mostly academic or sporting in nature. The work to begin Books 4 Bright Futures came about in 2022 and began simply with identifying ways to collect low cost or free childrens books for delivery to Sri Lankan schools where students were trying to learn English. The opportunity barrier created when Sri Lankan students did not gain English language fluency was life changing, and the simple access to English language books we learned is the first and essential step to help towards helping students facing this challenge. Working on building a team, figuring out the logistics to get the books there, and identifying the schools to send them to, became the next tasks to take on.

Many fellow friends and students were excited to help the cause, and quickly the number of collected books accumulated and the ability to reach more schools and students resulted. Forming a club at their high school further expanded their membership and supported their plans to expand their outreach, and friends Dinath, Karl, and Yashas took on important roles supporting their work. Finding a corporate partner to generously support the shipment costs for the books provided an essential part of the support needed to make the deliveries possible. Our team is proud to have worked successfully send three shipments to Sri Lankan schools and have contributed over 11,000 books to the efforts of students to learn the English language. We already have plans for future shipments and hope to expand our reach to as many Sri Lankan schools as possible!