News

South African students in the Cape Town area now have access to 22,000 BFA books thanks to help2read, a nonprofit that strives to ensure that all primary students are literate and love reading. According to help2read: "Now, 8,000 learners in 15 schools have access to beautiful and interesting books that will certainly provide enjoyment and an opportunity for learning. Not only have do the children have access to these books but they can, with the assistance of the trained reading helpers, now fully enjoy and appreciate these fantastic resources." Click on the headline to read the full report.

Miss Teen of America Carlene Miller recently volunteered to sort books at the BFA warehouse in Atlanta, then blogged about her experience: “Knowing that each one of those books, that would have ended up in a landfill, has the potential to completely change someone’s life made the entire experience so worthwhile and meaningful. It also helped that they had the best upbeat music playing in the background as we dug through our giant box of books from Brigham Young University. We emptied it completely, and it felt great!” Click on the headline for more info...

Students at the Catholic University of Sudan found a creative way to house their new BFA books: "We purchased a 40-foot sea container and had it remodeled and had shelves made and now it serves as a mini-provisional library. Saturday a group of students assisted in going through all the boxes . . . and re-sorted the books on the shelves so that now in most cases no more than two copies of any one book remain in the mini-library . . . and the rest are boxed and back in the first and smaller container. Students are excited about the situation . . . as a beginning!"

CNN recently posted a great story on their website about Books For Africa and the need for books in Africa. It includes quotes and photos from Andrea Wall of PEN Trust in Tanzania, a nonprofit that has distributed many BFA shipments. Click on the headline above for a link to the story.

At the grand opening of Books For Africa's new warehouse in the Atlanta metropolitan area in May 2009, James Kiiru, the Commercial Attaché to the Kenyan Embassy in Washington DC, praised BFA's work on behalf of the Honorable Peter Ogego, Kenya’s Ambassador to the U.S.: "Africa will forever be grateful to Books For Africa as its efforts continue to positively impact education development on the continent. It is good to know that someone cares. The Kenyan Embassy will do everything in its powers support you, as it believes in your dream." Click on the link to read a Mshale article and view photos of the grand opening.

President Obama recently gave a speech at Cairo University, which received a shipment of BFA books last March. The 40-foot sea container of approximately 18,000 books was sent to the university thanks to a grant from the OPEC Fund for International Development. Nine other containers were also sent through this grant to six North African countries to enhance schools and libraries by providing educational materials.