A group of GW students have issued a campus challenge: Raise $1,000 to purchase 1,000 books for children in need by the end of this month.

The effort is part of an international fundraising and awareness campaign known as “Booktober” run by the nonprofit Room to Read, which builds libraries and schools in Asian and African countries to promote literacy and gender equality.

Nabihah Hossain, a member of GW’s chapter of Room to Read, was born and raised in the United States, but most of her family lives in Bangladesh, one of the 11 countries that Room to Read works with. She hopes that this month’s events will draw attention to Room to Read’s important work.

“Everyone knows there’s a certain level of poverty in third world countries, however, seeing it firsthand every summer of my life, it was kind of something that I took for granted in that I knew it existed but I thought that was kind of the norm,” Hossain said. “But then once I got a little bit older I realized that this really shouldn’t be the case.”

The chapter will hold five Booktober fundraisers from Oct. 11 to 25, including a baked goods sale, Colonials Weekend brunches and a Millennium Development Goals Fair on Mid-Campus Quad.

All proceeds from the chapter’s fundraising events will be donated to the national organization, starting with a grilled cheese sale in Thurston Hall on Friday.

During this time, students can check out books from a Gelman Library display dedicated to the relationship between education and other causes such as environmental activism.

“We’re trying to show people not that any other [activism] goal is better than another, but how important it is that these goals work together,” president and cofounder of GW’s Room to Read chapter Jacquelyn Nicole Alanko said.