News

Books For Africa is fortunate to have a variety of dedicated partners, both individuals and organizations, who help us make sure the books get to their destination. Their efforts are critical to our mission, and this month's newsletter highlights the work of just a few of them.

When Andrea Malenya moved to Botswana, leaving behind her Mayo Clinic job and her Rochester home for a stint as a Peace Corps volunteer, it was strictly viewed as a short-term thing.  She never imagined that the South African country would become her home. Nor that her work would revolve around her love of books and helping to instill a culture of reading in the country. 

From the beginning of its story, Read To Recovery’s plot continues to thicken as the program continues to thrive. Read to Recovery began with psychology instructor Barb Houle's idea to help schools, health centers and hospitals over in the South African country of eSwatini — formerly known as Swaziland before its new name change in 2018 — get access to reading material for patients who were recovering from various treatments and procedures.

Recently, IBPA member and independent publisher Barefoot Books partnered with Books For Africa to ship 300,000 copies of their bestselling titles to orphans with AIDS and their caregivers in Mozambique. IBPA was impressed with this sizable and noteworthy project, so we spoke to Barefoot Books’ Co-Founder and CEO Nancy Traversy to see how it all came to be.

Ten years ago, the late Todd Bol built a doll-sized schoolhouse out of wood, filled it with his mother’s books and put it outside his house as a neighborhood book exchange. When asked why he did this, he said he was simply paying homage to his mother, a school teacher and lover of books who had recently passed away. Over the years, what originally started as a way to honor his mother has now snowballed into a worldwide book-sharing movement.

2019 has been a record setting year at BFA! As we approach the end of our fiscal year on June 30th, we have surpassed 3.2 million books shipped to Africa this year, already a new record. We are on track to see a remarkable 42% increase over last year's shipping total. Check out our summer newsletter to learn more about our record-setting year, and see what BFA has been doing as we work to end the African book famine.