The story of how the Barangay Pepita People's Learning Center came to be begins decades ago when Cora Noyes was a child in the Phillipines reading the discarded newspapers used to wrap food. Reading material was scarce and many children hungry like her for knowledge had to leave to find it. Cora went on to college vowing to give back to the community that raised her. She eventually married David Noyes and immigrated from the Philippines. Together, they coordinate with volunteers in the Philippines and libraries in the United States.
The center was proposed in June of 2007 with the realization that thousands of books were being discarded to landfills or needlessly recycled by local libraries and bookstores. Since then, thousands of books have been salvaged and are being sent to the Philippines. Books are rare and expensive in the Philippines where many of the people are trilingual, speaking common Tagalog, their local dialects of Tagalog, and English. Books in the learning centers not only benefit local school children but aspiring college students and the elderly.
You can see the locations of the Pepita People's Learning Centers here.
