Above The Seas

About us

Above The Seas - Because a great adventure starts with a good book.
Above The Seas, founded in 2013, seeks to support the education and development of children and young adults as well as communities at large through access to vibrant, resourceful community libraries in the developing world. We are a small Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) supporting libraries in the developing world.

The name "Above the Seas" is meant to be inspirational; it is about climbing mountains and sailing the seas. Such adventures are out of reach for someone from a slum or a poor village. These adventures can only become possible once survival is secured, this comes through education, skills development and learned resourcefulness. The adventure of our lives gets a great start from access to quality information such as books and the Internet. Small community libraries are providing access to such information in the poorest places. All those libraries are local initiatives and are managed by residents of the community. Let's simply encourage them by facilitating their survival. A well furnished library attracts more people and that makes it successful. Those libraries are highly beneficial to everyone, especially the children.

Our Mission
The mission of Above The Seas is to support education advancement through the promotion and support of community libraries in the developing world.

Our main objective is to improve village and slum libraries which serve the extremely poor.

What we do
• We collect and manage funds which are used to purchase needed supplies for community libraries. We have very low operation overhead costs. All funds are directed entirely to purchase and deliver supplies to libraries in the poorest places.
• We donate supplies to existing libraries to enhance their services and improve the quality of information for the benefit of the local population.
• We provide books, computers and Internet access.

The libraries
The libraries we support already exist and are open today. Above the Seas did not establish the libraries nor do we manage them directly. We support them by donating library items, perform training and offer consultation. We invest in library service enhancements such as Internet connectivity, books, eBooks, furniture, computer equipment, learning tools, and space. The goal is always to facilitate the self-reliance of the library, while providing a quality environment with valuable services for the community.

Tomas Ryan is the Founding Executive Director of Above the Seas.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.