Diane and Paul Garrett and BetterWorld Trust

The late Paul Garrett was a California real estate developer, investor, cattle rancher and organic farmer. In his early 20s Paul created a Philanthropic Foundation that he named BetterWorld Foundation. Paul discovered pretty quickly that if he wanted to bring his dream to fruition, he needed to get to work and earn enough money to help fund the foundation, and so he did.  

Many years later, he met his future wife, Diane, a long-time Commercial Insurance Broker in Nebraska and later in California.  Diane became Paul’s personal insurance broker and a few years later they married.  Paul asked Diane, her daughter Cari and his daughter Andrea, to help start their new family foundation, they called: BetterWorld Together Foundation which later became “BetterWorld Trust.”

“One of the things that brought us together was that we both wanted to create a unique yet impactful way to help alleviate poverty and suffering in the world,” Diane recalled. “We wanted to help the most impoverished while also helping to uplift those most capable, so that they in turn could go out into the world and help others living in poverty.”  A cyclical approach to combatting suffering. 

They began working close to home initially, focusing on several of the communities around their hometown and on a number of programs including schools, libraries, youth and literacy programs, food pantries, and other Nonprofits. Over time they expanded their efforts and began working in Africa, India and Mexico.  

On one particular visit to Malawi, Paul and Diane made a discovery that would shape their philanthropic efforts for years to come. 
 

“We realized that we wanted to help educate children primarily,” Diane said. “We were working directly within many small villages in these developing countries, in order to find out what the needs of those villages were. In one village the community leaders took us into their new small school library. They said, ‘look…this is our beautiful library’ and welcomed us proudly in. As we walked inside, we saw bookshelves and tables equipped with chairs, but not one book to be found in the entire library. The shelves were completely, totally empty, and it devastated us both. The villagers were so proud of their library, but it was completely bare. We came back to America and asked ourselves, ‘how can we send books directly to the children in Africa?’  I decided I would simply contact schools in America and ask them ‘if you have any books you're not using, can we please have them?’ Our struggle was then to try and figure out a way to ship them to schools and Libraries in Africa.”  Then we found out how difficult it was to ship books to Africa.  The logistics and the processes felt overwhelming. But we were determined.  

“Fortunately, we discovered an organization already operating within this same realm called Books for Africa (BFA). They were doing the exact thing we wanted to do,” Diane said, “and we were so excited. They were receiving books from companies, outdated curriculum and textbooks from colleges and school districts and other organizations that didn't want or need them, and they were shipping them directly to Africa.  They had figured out how to navigate that system.  We partnered with them (in 2008) and I think we sent 50,000 books the first time, we partnered directly with an organization we were working with in Malawi, who then distributed them to schools and filled up their library shelves.  It just warmed our hearts and made us feel so good. We thought: ‘Okay, let's do more of that!’ And so we did, and every year since we've sent shipments of books to remote villages in Africa through Books For Africa, directly to schools and libraries in Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi and Sierra Leone. We’ve sent close to one million books overall.“

When the Garretts started working with BFA, they personally visited the headquarters in St. Paul, including their warehouse. “It’s always been my ambition to empty their warehouse. I’m not in a position to do that just yet, but I’m working on it,” Diane said.  “I think BFA is a great organization that provides a great service, reaching directly into impoverished countries, and specifically those who don’t have the means or opportunity to acquire books themselves.”  

Diane recalled, on one particular visit to a village in Africa, seeing a little girl sitting on the side of the road, on a dilapidated chair reading a book. “She was just sitting there, in that desolate place, holding her little book so preciously in her hands, it really touched me, and when I approached her she smiled at me wanting to show me her book. She was so happy to have it, and proud to show it to me.  I’ll never forget that. 

“Seeing the joy on the faces of the children when they are able to have and then read the books we helped send was so fulfilling,” Diane expressed. “I remember as a child, reading books and looking at the pictures, it was so exciting for me.” I just keep imagining these children in their homes, in their villages having their minds opened to so many possibilities in the world.  All made possible by reading the books we helped send.”

Diane and Paul believe that education is the key to eliminating poverty. In discussions about how they could help reduce or eliminate the problems of global warming, they soon realized it is too big of a problem for them to solve in their lifetime.  “The solution needs to be navigated carefully, involving larger organizations, businesses and government entities, those with a much broader reach than we currently have.” The Garretts concluded that their contribution to solving these types of problems would be better served “…by helping to educate children, we hope to instill the joy of learning, especially in younger children, who in turn we hope will grow up and figure out better ways to help solve these bigger issues and other problems caused by or related to global warming and poverty.”

After years of donating money to help the students of Africa, Diane and BetterWorld Trust’s plan is to fully honor Paul’s dream and legacy by continuing his/their good work “not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it touches my heart and gives me immense joy too.  It makes me believe that there is hope.”

Diane repeated a quote she remembered from the late Philosopher Krishnamurti who said “The little four-letter word ’hope’ holds our entire future within it.”

“I love this quote, it reminds me to believe in the goodness of people and to have hope for our future,” Diane said. “I think if you are born into a small remote village somewhere or in an impoverished area, it might feel really hard to find hope. I believe that books give the people who read them some inspiration and the ability to have hope for their future.”