Books For Africa Welcomes Mandela Fellows to Minnesota Warehouse

Books For Africa recently welcomed a group of 24 young African leaders from 15 countries across the continent to our warehouse in St. Paul, Minnesota, where they met with BFA staff and board members and helped sort and pack books.

These 24 guests are this year’s Mandela Fellows, selected by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. They are visiting the U.S. on a six-week tour for leadership training, including looking at community work done by nonprofits like Books For Africa.

You can read the bios of the Mandela Fellows here.

Upon their visit, they were greeted by BFA staff members and board members, including current Board President Mike Essien. They learned about BFA’s work and helped sort and pack books, taking breaks to discuss with BFA staff and board members and local media.

Fellow Karim Darboe from The Gambia said that “books and learning are the best ways to empower people.”

Books For Africa also donated 48 Merck Medical e-readers to the fellows, for distribution to medical professionals in their countries. This is the third year such an initiative has been running. The fellows also left with stacks of books for distribution in their countries.

Local media was there to cover the event, and news stories have been published by St. Paul’s Pioneer Press and KSTP, with video coverage by Kare 11 and radio coverage by WCCO.

Check out more photos from the event in our Flickr album!