A Californian couple, Marc and Leslie Barkdull, are hoping to bring 10,000 donated children’s picture books to help children in Samoa build English literacy skills and develop a love of reading.

For more than a decade, the Barkdulls have worked with Rheumatic Relief, an outreach program sponsored by Brigham Young University to diagnose and treat rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in Samoan children.

RHD, which is caused by untreated streptococcal throat infections, can lead to severe heart damage and is a major cause of premature death in Samoa, an island country in the South Pacific.

The disease, which is treatable with early detection, is also prevalent in American Samoa, a U.S. territory that consists of five small islands with a population of about 50,000.

Rheumatic Relief screens children for RHD in both Samoa and American Samoa.

The Barkdulls’ role with Rheumatic Relief has been to provide books and school supplies to elementary school-aged children after they have been screened.

Leslie Barkdull said many Samoan children grow up with no books in their homes and have limited access to reading materials in their schools.

“Books open doors,” she added. “For these children, a single picture book can spark imagination, strengthen language skills and create opportunities that last a lifetime.”

The Barkdulls, who lived on the Samoan island of Savaii for 15 months, are asking for donations of new or gently used children’s picture books in English, with stories appropriate up to fifth grade.

The goal was to collect 10,000 books by Saturday, 7 March, with a container ship loaded with Rheumatic Relief medical supplies scheduled to leave from Oakland for Samoa on 23 March.

This year, Rheumatic Relief expects to screen about 2,500 children on Savaii, the largest island in the Samoan archipelago, and another 2,500 children on the island of Upolu. A second team will assess about 3,000 school children in American Samoa.