Genoa couple part of family effort to replace Cambodia's destroyed books

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A Genoa couple is joining other family members to provide books for children half way around the world. John and Natalie Seper are involved with the Pookai Book Project, a family-run organization used to collect and donate books to libraries in Cambodia. "It's exciting," John, vice president of the organization, said. "It keeps the family together." John's brother Chris, who now lives in Cleveland, spent two years as a journalist in Cambodia. According to John, a lot of the country's books were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge during the Vietnam War. The communist regime were responsible for killing 2 million Cambodians, the organizations Web site said. "This is the only way to re-educate them," John said. John explained while his brother was in Cambodia he came in contact with a family in a restaurant. The mother and daughter were staring at some words scribbled in Chris's notebook. The mother asked if Chris had written in English. "When he said 'yes,' she told her daughter to look at it and learn," John said. Chris returned home and told his family about his encounters with the people of Cambodia. That was when the family decided to start the volunteer Pookai (Khmer for smart) Book Project. The organization is run out of John's parent's house in Rockford. His mother, Julia, is the president. A lot of the books have gone to the Angsoeng Rural Library, which has books and magazines in both English and Khmer, the national language of Cambodia. John said his family has the most difficulty finding books in Khmer to send to Cambodia. As vice president, John is in charge of applying for grant money and finding people to donate books. The books come from a variety of places including donations from authors and local libraries. The Sepers get some of the books from the $1 bin at the Genoa Public Library. "We go through and pick out the best books," John said. Due to high costs for shipping, the Sepers are only able to send 10-11 books to Cambodia each month. "We keep an inventory out of my parents house in Rockford," John said. "You can only send so much a month without overloading them." The books take three to four weeks to arrive in Cambodia after they are shipped from Illinois. The Sepers try to send the books in stages so they arrive in Cambodia once a month. Natalie got involved after marrying into the family. She serves as a board member. "It's challenging sometimes," she said about working together as a family. "When you work together on the book club you have to remember it's a committee." Natalie is a 5th-grade teacher at Washington Elementary School in Belvidere. She said having the mindset of a teacher only helps to solidify the importance of what the family is doing to help the people in Cambodia. "I'm a teacher so it's nice to see we're educating people halfway across the world," she said. The Sepers also organize book signings with authors who donate books. Everyone in the family is involved with setting up for the events. Also to raise money, the family holds an annual garage sale with all of the proceeds going to the book project. This past year's brought in $355. John and Natalie have never been to Cambodia since it's an expensive trip. They hope to go over there some day. From what they know, the people receiving the books have been "real appreciative," John said. "It makes a big difference," he said. "It's a type of situation where is doesn't take a lot to make a difference."

Rob Carroll can be reached at rcarroll@pulitzer.net.