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"The toughest job you'll ever love" was the old slogan in Peace Corps PSAs. The public service announcements still ring true for former and future volunteers, Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn says. It "resonates with anyone who has ever served in the Peace Corps, because it so directly speaks to not just how challenging it is, but just how transformational it is." Including for Spahn herself, who served in post-Cold War Romania from 1994 to 1996 as a small-business adviser. Later, before her 2022 ascension to director, she held other organizational roles, including chief of operations in the Africa region.

United States Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn said during a recent Minnesota visit that she’s focused on reinvigorating the Corps after operations were suspended as the pandemic unfolded in March of 2020, leading to the evacuation of over 7,000 volunteers across the world. 

“The Books for Africa Jack Mason Law & Democracy Initiative is a truly remarkable and visionary endeavor,” said Donna Gollmer, director of ABA Publishing. “The opportunity to join Thomson Reuters in supporting Books for Africa by providing court systems, bar associations, women’s legal organizations and law schools across Africa with essential law books is a powerful way to support both the Rule of Law and access to justice.”

Read about Books For Africa's 35th anniversary gala, get updates on projects in Malawi and South Sudan, and more!

Books For Africa was honored to host Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn in Minnesota on Friday, November 3rd, 2023, for discussions at the MINN Summit, and at a Books For Africa reception hosted by Thomson Reuters and Humphrey School Dean Nisha Botchwey.

Three groups of volunteers from International Hotel Group (IHG), a total of 36 people on three shifts, sorted books in Books For Africa's Georgia warehouse. Read more about their experience, and why they found the volunteer work so rewarding!