The Norman Transcript
June 18, 2008
By Julianna Parker

While many university students complain about the high cost of textbooks, Tu Pham is thankful for the books lining the shelves of local bookstores and libraries.

Pham, a chemistry doctoral candidate at the University of Oklahoma, got her undergraduate degree in Vietnam, where she is from.

Students in Vietnam can't afford to buy books themselves, so they use the ones at the library.

"Most of them are really old and from the Russia many years ago," Pham said.

So she is organizing a book drive this year collecting new and used textbooks and reference works to send to students in Vietnam.

This is the second year for the drive. Last year, Pham and other Vietnamese students at OU collected about 60 books to send to Vietnam.

The OU book drive is part of a national effort of the Vietnam Education Foundation Fellows Association, a nonprofit organization of Vietnamese students in the U.S.

VEFFA partners with the Vietnam Education Foundation, Hanoi University of Technology, Vinh University and several other non-profit and educational organizations in Vietnam to build a collaborative network to implement the project.

The books collected at OU will be packaged and sent to the VEFFA headquarters in Michigan, where they will be sorted and mailed to Vietnam.

The books there will be the placed in a public library at Hanoi University of Technology that was opened with the first batch of books in January, Pham said.

The primary need is science, engineering and technology books, but all books are welcome, Pham said.

Vietnam is looking to move forward in the areas of science and technology, Pham said, but it can't do that if there are no books to learn from.

"We would like to have more books and very good textbooks for students," she said.

Also, VEFFA is collecting donations to help with overhead for the project, including the cost of shipping the books. To arrange a monetary donation, e-mail vnbookdrive@veffa.org.

Those in Norman who would like to donate books may bring them by Pham's office, room 308A of Carson Engineering Center. Those who work at OU may call or e-mail Pham and she or another Vietnamese student will pick up the donated books. Her number is 476-2248 and e-mail is tupham@ou.edu.