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When I visited a new library in Uganda in 1988 and discovered its empty shelves, I had no idea that 32 years later Books For Africa (BFA) would be shipping its 50 millionth book to the African continent.

Books For Africa — a St. Paul nonprofit founded in 1988 that is the largest shipper of donated library and textbooks to the African continent — this month will mark its 50 millionth book sent.

Books For Africa (BFA) will be shipping its 50 millionth book to Africa by the end of 2020. Quite an achievement for a Saint-Paul based organization that started in 1989 with a simple mission: End the book famine in Africa. In 1988, Tom Warth visited a library in Uganda and saw that books were almost non-existent, and the few that occupied the shelves were tattered and worn. Returning to Saint Paul, he started BFA in an effort to provide education through books to African students of all ages.

Longtime BFA donor, supporter, and former board member Henry Bromelkamp was featured in a recent story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, about his philanthropic work and recovery from a recent traumatic brain injury.

In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, Books For Africa continues to assist medical personnel with needed medical resource books and students with instructional materials. With the help of a recently approved $150,000 grant from the Merck Foundation, BFA is providing thousands of medical resource books in print and medical e-books to doctors, nurses and medical students across the African continent.

Reference books on viruses and other contagious diseases were donated to health practitioners in the Sissala East Municipality, as part of an initiative with Books For Africa.