Our mission: to end the book famine in Africa.

Posted by Erin on 02.15.2012 at 9:48 am

Guest post by Books for Africa’s Communications Specialist, Maggie Meyer

At Books For Africa, we take global literacy seriously. Since 1988, we have sent over 26 million books to 46 African countries, making us the world’s largest shipper of books to the African continent. We are committed to the idea that books are tools of literacy. These tools will build the foundation for economic development and a brighter future for a fast rising continent.

In 2003, Books for Africa (BFA) found in Better World Books an invaluable partner in our quest to bring books to Africa and it has been nothing but synergy ever since. In addition to providing BFA with vast quantities of university level text books, Better World Books is BFA’s largest single donor. This partnership allowed BFA to send more than 630,000 books to Africa in 2011 alone! Since 2003, Better World Books has contributed over $2.4 million to BFA. This has brought about 1.5 million books in 64 shipments to 24 countries. That’s  a whopping $11.7 million value between books and monetary donations.

BFA has likewise partnered with a number of organizations over the years to end the African book famine. This February, BFA founder Tom Warth and representatives of our partners Hand In Health and Course Hero will be making the first ever African Book Walk. Their team will cross the width of the Gambia, distributing a container of 22,000 books. They will follow the trans-Gambian highway to cross the entire country and get out their message that now is the time to end the African book famine.

Many African leaders have testified to the support BFA provides in their countries. For example, James Kimonyo, the Ambassador of the Republic of Rwanda to the US, served as keynote speaker at our 2011 annual fundraiser. He had nothing but praise for BFA saying, “A small amount of money invested in the United States is turned into thousands of books — which, in turn, are shared by millions of young people in my country and around the continent. That is a small price to pay to help us build and develop our countries.” (Read more at Minn Post). BFA sent a full container of 22,000 books to Rwanda in the Ambassador’s honor following the event.

You don’t have to trek across a nation to help us end the book famine. Both monetary and book donations are much needed at BFA. Or, if you want to contribute your time and talent, our Minnesota and Georgia warehouses can always use volunteers. Find out how to get involved by going to our website at www.booksforafrica.org.

*Note* The above guest post is from Books for Africa’s Communications Specialist, Maggie Meyer. This content does not necessarily reflect the views of Better World Books (as our lawyers make sure we say). We love having guest bloggers and invite you to email 11@betterworldbooks.com if you are interested in covering a book or topic on the BWB Blog. Thank you, Maggie, we are honored to support the wonderful work of Books for Africa! 

Did you know that every time you shop with Better World Books, we donate a book to Books for Africa – Book for Book. Also, for each new “like” and “follow” on Facebook and Twitter, we donate a book to a student in Africa through our BFA partners?

You can join in by helping BFA the ways Maggie listed above – you an also help each time you donate books to Better World Books, buy books from us, and even share #bookforbook and #bookforlike on your social media page.

How’s it feel to give a book to a child in need with just one click?

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