USC Marshall School of Business

Talk about your global reach.

The impact has been immediate, according to James Owens, Assistant Professor of Clinical Management Communication at Marshall, who founded The World Is Just a Book Away (WIJABA) in 2008. "I was very surprised to learn that most of these children had never seen books with pictures and never read a book for enjoyment. Most of us take books for granted and never think about it," Owens said. "It can be hard to imagine that there are children who have little to no access to books."

"We started to be active in this school library-building effort because we had received reports of children having to learn English by reading instruction manuals they had found in garbage dumps," said Holip Soekawan, President of the Alumni of USC in Indonesia (AUSCI) club and a group that has raised enough money over the past two years to build 18 libraries with WIJABA in various regions in Indonesia.

"One library touches approximately 300-500 children in surrounding areas," said Soekawan, who earned his business degree from Marshall's Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies in 1994 and met Owens in 1998 when Owens came to the Indonesia capital of Jakarta as part of a Marshall MBA trip and Soekawan was working for USC International Offices. "In terms of results, I guess our biggest barometer is the smiles on the children’s faces when they see a library filled with books," Soekawan said.

Owens began WIJABA while writing his own book with the same title about books that have inspired prominent people. "My plan was always to donate part of the profits to charity," explained Owens, who taught "Advanced Writing for Business" at Marshall this fall. "I felt the best way to have the greatest impact would be to provide access to books to children in developing countries. So I decided to start my own charity."

Armed with this idea, Owens approached Andru Subowo, a young man who Owens met when he was the Associate Director for Marshall's MBA Career Center in 1999 and Subowo was an MBA student at Marshall. Subowo, the Managing Director of Bramadi Capital based in Jakarta, Indonesia, had been building "mini-libraries" and renovating classrooms in Indonesia through his Padi Pratama Foundation since 2001. "Andru suggested I consider Indonesia because there were so many children there who needed help," recalled Owens, who had already made several trips to visit the Indonesian rainforests and felt a strong attachment to the Pacific Asian country and its people.

Momentum accelerated when professionals from many areas of expertise joined the board. Concurrently, the WIJABA Advisory Board was launched with the help of prominent professionals, including Marshall Dean James G. Ellis and Jenny Ming (then President of Old Navy and currently President and C.E.O. of clothing chain Charlotte Russe). Young professionals, known as "Ambassadors," also play a vital role in the organization, according to Owens.

In October 2008, vigorous fundraising efforts to build the libraries began. Less than six months later, 10 libraries were up and running in Sidoarjo, part of Eastern Java. But Owens' vision didn’t end with brick and mortar libraries. "We wanted to work with children and the communities on a continuous basis by providing programs through the libraries, including leadership development, environmental and artistic programs," Owens said, noting that Subowo recommended the Sidoarjo location as the first site, because the region had been hit hard by a mudflow disaster that is estimated to have displaced more than 60,000 people.

A project manager was hired to manage the logistics and help identify schools where a library was needed—and desired. Not only does each school need to have space for a library, but parents, teachers and administrators must be willing to partner with WIJABA "in a deeper way," says Owens. This includes raising funds and managing the library.

"We hold focus groups with parents, teachers and administrators, as well as boys and girls divided by age and gender to find out what they need," Owens said. "We bring catalogs of books and ask the children what they want to read, so they are actively involved in choosing the books for the library."

Before a library is built, the community must commit to participating by raising 10% of the library's cost to actively maintain and run the library. At WIJABA, says Owens, "We strongly believe in community involvement. The local people know what is best for their community and we also very much want to incorporate their input and provide them with a sense of ownership and pride in the projects."

As word began to spread about what WIJABA was accomplishing, the nonprofit partnered with the InterContinental Bali Resort, which named the school library it opened in Bali after Cher, a WIJABA supporter.

One of WIJABA's biggest boosts, however, came when the Alumni USC Club of Indonesia (AUSCI), led by Marshall alumna Vanessa Hendriadi (MBA 2002), and one of the strongest and most active US alumni clubs in the country, stepped in to help. Hendriadi, Subowo, and Soekawan are all active members in the AUSCI's executive committee. In fact, Subowo's ties with Soekawan ran even deeper, the two having met during their undergraduate days at USC in the early 1990s.

In late 2008, Hendriadi had been tasked to host AUSCI's inaugural Charity Ball and she was seeking a viable cause to support when she reconnected on Facebook with Owens, who had been one of Hendriadi's advisors when she co-founded the Global Executive Organization at Marshall. Owens filled Hendriadi in on his WIJABA efforts. Hendriadi consulted her fellow committee members who were enthusiastic about the partnership and, "Eureka! We found a cause!" Hendriadi recalled.

But the April 2009 event was not without drama. "We almost cancelled because of the economic crisis. Since it was our first attempt, there were a lot of issues that we were not familiar with. Who would be interested in sponsoring us when so many people are out of jobs from the economic crisis?" Hendriadi wondered. "With faith, we decided to go ahead without being too optimistic on our target."

Hendriadi cautiously targeted for 200 guests and a $10,000 fundraising goal. The event ended up far surpassing her expectations, raising more than $30,000 from 500 guests, funding 10 libraries in Sidoarjo. WIJABA also named its first mobile library in honor of AUSCI. The mobile library enables WIJABA to reach more than 6,000 children with thousands of books in areas where the schools couldn't meet the space requirements or were in the projected future path of the mudflow.

The charity ball was so successful-the "talk of the town," according to Hendriadi, that Hendriadi and her committee decided to also raise money the following year at AUSCI's 2010 charity ball for WIJABA. Owens was invited to speak at the event by AUSCI. The event garnered enough funds to build another eight libraries in Padang, Sumatra, an area that has been struck by several major earthquakes in the recent past. "In short, we decided to do it again this year because it’s something we believe in," Hendriadi said.

"In just two years the USC alumni in Indonesia have made a powerful impact on the lives of children in Indonesia and a powerful commitment to continue that impact through building 50 libraries in five years," Owens said. "I believe that this is a strong testament to the commitment of the USC alumni in Indonesia to the education of children in their own country and it is a wonderful, meaningful partnership for WIJABA in general and for me personally, given my own connection with Marshall and USC, both as a faculty member and as an alumnus."

Fundraising efforts for WIJABA are also active in Kuwait, led by USC alumna Rayah Al-Sabah, who established a Kuwait chapter of WIJABA that has donated funds for multiple projects in Padang, Indonesia, including "The World is Just a Book Away Kuwait Library," which was named for the Kuwaiti chapter. In 2011, WIJABA will announce the opening of a new office in a new country.

As the organization's reach expands, so does its leadership, with WIJABA appointing Emilio Diez Barroso, as its new Chairman last November. Diez Barroso, Chairman and Founder of NALA Investments, LLC, now oversees the board. Prominent supporters include Queen Noor Al-Hussein, Desmond Tutu, Jane Goodall, Lois and Buzz Aldrin, Shirin Ebadi (awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize), and Muhammad Yunus (founder of Bangladesh’s microlender Grameen Bank).

"People may think it's hard to have an impact with a charity," Owens said. "But actually with just one dollar we're able to buy a book, for as little as $2500 we can build an entire library for a school that doesn't have a library, and for as little as $10,000, we can build a library that also serves as a community center. People have the ability to make an enormous difference," Owens said. "I can't express in words how moved I am to have been involved in something like this, both in terms of the support WIJABA has received in the US and abroad, and in terms of the children whose lives have been touched by the books and programs WIJABA provides. It’s grown so far beyond what I initially visualized and, yet, somehow I feel like it is just the beginning and that The World is Just a Book Away will reach tens of thousands of children with its libraries, mobile libraries and programs, helping them to dream, expand their horizons, and achieve their potential."

To find out more about The World Is Just a Book Away, visit http://www.justabookaway.org/,