"Million Books for The Gambia" Initiative Continues to Deliver

BFA board member Lamin "Lang" Dibba recently traveled to The Gambia, where he was present for the arrival of the latest delivery under the Million Books for The Gambia project. A container of about 30,000 textbooks and library books arrived at Banjul, which brings the total book count shipped under the project to 763,000 so far!

Million Books for The Gambia began in 2008, when Sulayman Junkung General Hospital CEO Kebba Badgie wanted to establish the Sulayman Junkung Medical Library, as part of efforts to make the institution a state-of-the-art teaching hospital. In collaboration with volunteers from A Hand in Health (a Minnesota-based NGO), and through partnership with Books For Africa, fundraising was completed and the first shipment arrived in August of 2010.

BFA founder Tom Warth personally visited The Gambia in 2012, alongside Lane Ayres and Lang Dibba, to complete an African Book Walk to raise awareness of the importance of books and literacy in Africa and The Gambia.  In addition to walking the 20-mile Trans-Gambian highway and distributing a full container of books, Tom’s delegation met with Gambian officials and U.S. and foreign ambassadors.

The project has shipped over three quarters of a million books to Lang’s home country over the last ten years! The books have impacted the lives of many in The Gambia, but work continues to be done to raise funds toward the project goal of one million.

Check out more photos from distribution!