Books For Africa, USAID, Mercy Corps, and WFP to help Liberian Schools

 

MONROVIA, Liberia — Books For Africa, a US-based private charity, in partnership with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Mercy Corps and the UN World Food Programme (WFP), announces the latest installment of books in an innovative drive that is delivering hundreds of thousands of books to African schools.

A total of three containers packed with some 70,000 new and used schoolbooks arrived in port of Monrovia in February and March 2006, destined for bookshelves in schools across the country. A large number of these books will be handed over to the Ministry of Education by WFP, USAID and Mercy Corps for distribution to primary schools throughout the country. The books will be handed over to the Ministry of Education in an official ceremony on Wednesday, April 12 at 10:00 am at WFP Logistic Unit, Port.

 

Since 1988, Books For Africa (BFA) has shipped more than 10 million books to Africa, with experience in many African countries: Botswana, Cameroon, DRC, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

“Our goal is to end the book famine in Africa,” said Pat Plonski, Executive Director of Books For Africa, based in Minneapolis, MN. “This innovative partnership with WFP enables us to tap into the WFP school feeding network, penetrating even the poorest and most remote rural areas.”

The Books For Africa, USAID and WFP partnership, established in September 2004, aims to deliver more than 400,000 books worth over $2 million during a year-long period to WFP school feeding locations across Africa.

So far, deliveries nine containers have been delivered to Lesotho, Swaziland, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Gambia. Each container included approximately 35,000 primary school books. The last three containers are all destined for distribution in Liberia. The overseas transportation cost of the third Liberian container, a 40-foot container holding 35,000 books, was made possible by a donation from Mercy Corps.

USAID has sponsored the project with a $96,000 partnership grant, while overseas transport costs have been donated by shipping companies like TNT, Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping, Safmarine and Seaboard.