News

Books For Africa was pleased to host a delegation of African journalists visiting under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program and the Minnesota International Center. Members of the delegation interacted with BFA staff regarding literacy trends in Africa, and how to improve book distribution systems. Countries represented in the delegation included Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal, and Zimbabwe.

Students attend the kickoff of the Million Book March at an elementary school in Monrovia, Liberia. USAID Africa Education Initiative funded a grant to Visions In Action, who is partnering with Books For Africa, to ship one million books to Liberia. Each primary school will receive 500 books, and each secondary school will receive 2,000 books.

Books For Africa partners with Driver Middle School in New York and showers Educational Support Services in Nigeria. These Books For Africa books were sent by the support from both the Showers Educational Support Services and Driver Middle School students. Driver Middle School students studied Africa and decided to have a book drive and donate the funds from a production of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to a shipment to Showers Educational Support Services in Nigeria. The students were able to raise $2,500 towards the shipping costs to help defray one-third of the shipping expenses. Thank you to all the supporters of this shipment.

Books For Africa Board Members Henry Bromelkamp and Xavier Helgeson and Books For Africa Kilimanjaro Society Member Barb Ryan visit Mafunda High School in South Africa. These Books For Africa representatives performed a site visit on a book reciepent school in South Africa. Barb, Xavier and Henry were able to receive in-depth feedback from the recipients on the quality and subject matter of the books.

This is Books For Africa's first shipment to Algeria, and the shipping was completely funded by the newly established Better World Books Fund for Books For Africa. "I speak for all of my students at Es-Senia University Department of English when I say we are thrilled and thankful to have received in our storehouse the 688 boxes of books from you today. More than 50 of us helped to unload the truck, take pictures, and otherwise celebrate the long awaited arrival of your generous donation. After finding a safe storage room to temporarily put the books before dispatching them to the different university libraries the English club members helped me give a reception for the university workers and all the students who helped in the day's work. Algerians and especially the youth want so much to open up to the world, to learn languages, to visit and share ideas and to have visitors from other countries come also to visit this beautiful country so varied in culture and landscape. Thank you again for trusting us with this wonderful gift of support in learning the English language and enlarging our knowledge of American culture. We will continue to send pictures, newspaper articles and e-mails to keep you up to date with our future activities.