News

This past weekend, Books For Africa partnered with the African Development Center (ADC) [http://www.adcminnesota.org/] to host the Mobilizing Diaspora Connections Conference. Connections within the African community in Minnesota make it possible to deliver services to those that need them the most. As the hosts of the conference, BFA and ADC wanted to celebrate the connections that are necessary to promote economic and community development both in the Twin Cities as well as in Africa.

Sixteen year-old Eagle Scout and book lover, Manvir Singh Bhagrath, shared his time, resources, and hard work with Books For Africa’s mission. In late August, Manvir called the BFA Atlanta warehouse to make sure employees would be there to receive his donations. Several hours later, the young man arrived to deliver a virtual vanload of books and school supplies.

The goal of Operation Gusii Books 2 was simple: bring more books to Gusii community and Kisii County in Kenya. Thanks to a partnership between Minnesota Kenya International Development Association (MKIDA) and BFA, that goal was accomplished. In July, Kisii University College received 500 legal text books from BFA, through MKIDA and the University of Minnesota, along with enough books to fill the libraries of 57 primary schools in surrounding Kisii County.

More than 2 million books to 22 different African countries over the last year? Now that’s a milestone! Here, BFA Executive Director, Patrick Plonski, describes the great achievement of our biggest year yet on KSTP (St. Paul, MN) on August 5, 2012. Plonski talks about how BFA will end the book famine and the great work we have done so far.

Patrick Plonski, BFA Executive Director, has another blog up on Huffington Post Impact! The Impact blog is running a special series on impending crisis in the Sahel. There is a real need for education and development in the region and BFA has delivered to a number of countries in the region since we were founded in 1989.