Excitement Greets New Shipment in Togo

After leaving the U.S. last December, a shipment of nearly 27,000 books has arrived in Togo! Distribution began on March 3 in Kara, a city in northern Togo, with books going to fourteen libraries and two orphanages.

As our recipient partner Arsène Mabadjam Katwa put it, "You can't imagine how people are excited here about these books. Almost all our libraries here were almost empty. The few existing books were very old and often mended by librarians who use glue and scotch tape to put together torn papers of these books. When I announced [to] the librarian there that we got a donation from Books For Africa and that they were the beneficiaries, she stood up and danced."

The next stop for the book distributors is is Dapaong in the far north, where books will be distributed to more students and librarians.  Meanwhile, in Kara, an English Speech Contest and a Reading Contest are being organized, with goal of encouraging reading and developing students' English skills.

Check out some of the great photos we received on our Flickr album!