This flyer was sent to all 500+ delegates attending the “Sullivan Summit” in Arusha, Tanzania.  Note that Better World Books, through the Better World Books Fund within Books For Africa, is sponsoring the shipment and that the books will be distributed by the Poverty Eradication Network (PEN) in Tanzania. Natasha Harris, Niko Tomlinson, Mary Murphy, Jaime Knabet, Dustin Holland and myself visited the PEN folks in the summer of 2006 and have continued to stay in touch with them (Mungwe and Andrea).  They do fantastic work (based in Dodoma, the national capital of Tanzania) throughout the country.

To find out more about the Sullivan Summit VIII, go to www.thesullivanfoundation.org/summit/.

I am sending a few pictures of the library permanent crew and my students. We had a barbecue of merguez (grilled mutton sausage) and all the trimmings the first day we were back in class. We are on campus not too far from the library. I hope you both enjoy them.

Martha Schouten and English students
ELF Es-Senia
Oran Algeria

Dear Pat and Sarah Lynne and all the people from Books for Africa and Better World Books,

I speak for all of my students at Es-Senia University Department of English when I say we are thrilled and thankful to have received in our storehouse the 688 boxes of books from you today. More than 50 of us helped to unload the truck, take pictures, and otherwise celebrate the long awaited arrival of your generous donation. After finding a safe storage room to temporarily put the books before dispatching them to the different university libraries the English club members helped me give a reception for the university workers and all the students who helped in the day’s work.

Algerians and especially the youth want so much to open up to the world, to learn languages, to visit and share ideas and to have visitors from other countries come also to visit this beautiful country so varied in culture and landscape.  Thank you again for trusting us with this wonderful gift of support in learning the English language and enlarging our knowledge of American culture. We will continue to send pictures, newspaper articles and e-mails to keep you up to date with our future activities.

Best regards,
Martha Schouten and English students
ELF Es-Senia
Oran Algeria

This is Books for Africa’s first shipment to Algeria , and the shipping was completely funded by the newly-established Better World Books Fund for Books for Africa . We’ve been following the story of this shipment since September – here are the previous blog postings:

Better World Books Funds Shipment to the University of Oran in Algeria
University of Oran gets ready for books!
University of Oran update

Here are some more pictures from the arrival!

Martha Schouten, from the University of Oran in Algeria (previously blogged here) sent me this picture of her just-renovated office, featuring one of the school’s teachers and some of the English Club members. The university has enlarged the room so they can fill it with some of the books that will be coming in a Books for Africa container any day now! We’ll have more updates when the container gets there – stay tuned.

Add that all up and it’s a pretty simple equation:

+ + YOU    =

Changing people’s lives.

–Pat

THANK YOU!

Hhhhhhuuuuuuurrrrrraaaaayyyyyyy! shouted the teachers as the container reaches Sabu campus. Yesterday was a sigh of relief with great excitement to see the accomplishment of this historic project.  You must feel very proud that your goal has been achieved. We thank you for creating such an environment that will touch the growth of many lives.

You will receive letters and pictures from all the schools that will benefit from this resources.

We thank you for being a family we can always count on. We have been and will continue to works towards our commitment of educating the children.

Thank you all.

Samuel Thoronka
Sabu International School
Conakry, Guinea

Martha Schouten, an English Language Fellow teacher at the University of Oran in Algeria , contacted Books For Africa (BFA), to see if BFA could help replenish their library with English language books after many years of neglect. Currently, the University’s books in English are dated in the 1980’s or before.

During the 1990’s Algeria experienced civil war and domestic terror. Since 1999 little has changed – militant splinter groups continue their campaign against the government, and the army continues its own campaign against the rebels, amid accusations of corruption and brutality. This has undeniably created an atmosphere of insecurity in the general population.

As over half of Algeria’s population are young people, there are many issues for Algerian students. These concern future job opportunities, information available (or unavailable) to them, and the extreme feeling of uncertainty in almost all domains of their lives. In spite of this, Martha’s students are so very eager to know as much as possible about the outside world, and to travel and study in foreign countries.

To aid the beneficiaries of BFA donations, Better World Books has created a special Fund for Books For Africa. This Fund is designed to pay for the shipping costs of these containers of books. The Fund paid $9,000 in shipping costs for this one container.

The 40-foot container of books will be heading out today to the University. It is the first shipment that Books For Africa has sent to Algeria! The demand for university books in Africa remains enormous.

The health of the people of Somaliland is among the worst in Africa . This statement is supported by the fact that even before the civil war and the separation of the two Somali states, Somalia had one of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world. While recent valid data is not available, the mortality rates after the destruction that has taken place in country is frightening to consider.

-One out of 8 babies dies before the age of 12 months
-Every year nearly 4,000 Somali women die in childbirth
-One out of 5 children dies before the age of five
-Life expectancy is only 48 years

In the Somaliland region of Somalia, an extraordinary woman named Edna Adan Ismail runs her own obstetric hospital and trains midwives, underscoring how women’s lives can be saved even in the most difficult environments. The hospital site, once used as a mass killing field during the civil war for independence (1988-1990) under Siad Barre’s reign, is now a haven for bringing new life into the world.

Xavier Helgesen, co-founder of BWB, learned about this hospital in a New York Times article, and contacted the hospital after the announcement of the Better World Books Fund for Books For Africa, and a container of books was received in late July.

The Better World Books Fund is designed to pay for the shipping costs of containers of books, donated through Books For Africa. The Fund is important, because the shipping costs for this one container alone were over $5,000.

The donated books will be used for the hospital’s medical library for the Edna Adan Teaching Hospital. While the library could not currently contain a whole container of books, any extra books with will be distributed to Universities in Somalia and governmental nursing facilities.

Check out the following letter from Pat Plonski, Executive Director of Books for Africa!

Hello everyone–It is my honor to inform you that Books For Africa has just signed a memorandum of understanding with Visions in Action to ship 25 40-foot seacontainers of textbooks to Liberia.  This agreement will provide for the shipping of between 875,000 – 1,000,000 textbooks (550 tons) valued at approximately $4 million over the course of the next 12 months.  Books For Africa history.  This agreement with Visions In Action stems from a meeting I held in Monrovia with Visions in Action in January of this year where this concept was established.  USAID is also playing a role in the financing of this project.  I will be traveling to Liberia in October or November of this year as part of a Books For Africa / Better World Books delegation to meet with Visions In Action, and Liberian government officials, and other key players to formally initiate this project. Thank you everyone for your great support of Books For Africa.  This is exciting news.  The need for books of all types is very great in Liberia and this is an opportunity to help rebuild this country and give hope to the people there.

–Pat

Patrick Plonski

Executive Director

Books For Africa

“The Books For Africa / Better World Books partnership continues to grow and grow! In early March, establishment of the Better World Books Fund of Books For Africa was announced at a special ceremony at the Better World Books warehouse in Indiana. The first check in the amount of $55,000 was formally presented. This revolving fund, providing $165,000 in each of fiscal years 2007 and 2008 (to defray shipping costs), will enable the shipping of well over 17 containers (600,000 books) to Africa in the coming fiscal year.

We are thrilled to be able to set up the Better World Books Fund with Books For Africa and provide a committed stream of funding for specific book shipments that our partners (student groups, libraries, corporate book drive sponsors, and the general public supporting us through their purchases on www.Betterworld.com) can help directly support and sponsor,” said Better World Books President and CEO, David Murphy. “Working closely with our supporters and Books For Africa, the Better World Books Fund will make a very immediate and significant impact by getting desperately needed books to more African children in more communities throughout the continent.”

If you’re a student, bookstore manager or faculty member currently involved with a BWB book drive and you’d like to help get books to a specific place in Africa, contact your Regional Director to learn more about getting involved with the BWB Fund.

The rest of the newsletter has some great articles on BFA’s first shipment to Chad, a shipment to Sudan, an article about a school receiving books in Ghana as well as recognition from Liberia’s General Consul and a U.S.-Kenyan Ambassador. Archived issues of BFA’s newsletter can be found in the newsletter section of the BFA website.

Subject: Container to Kenya
Hello -

I am pleased to inform you that a 40-foot container of textbooks left our St. Paul warehouse today bound for the port of Mombasa, Kenya for distribution in that area of Africa.  Funding for a 20-foot container was provided for this container; BFA has utilized $1k from the Better World Books Fund to defray shipping costs of boosting this to a 40-foot container.

Thank you for this support of education in Kenya!
-Pat

This is just the first of a number of shipments that will be sponsored by the newly-formed Better World Books Fund – this 40-foot container holds about 35,000 books! Stay tuned for more BWB Fund updates.

Representing Friends and Alumni of KU at the ceremony were Dr. Leah Keino and Dr. Ebby Luvaga of Iowa State University, Dr. Jane Rose Njue of Northern Illinois University, Dr. Agnes Odinga of Hamline University, and Dorothy Rombo (faculty on study-leave from KU) of the University of Minnesota, who have all been actively involved in this project since October 2006. Also present were Wilfred Pere, and James Wakiaga, First Counsellor at the Kenyan Embassy.

Here’s the link to the article.