Thanksgiving greetings from Our Friends in Tanzania

Posted by admin on 11.26.2006 at 10:12 pm

Sometimes the true meaning of something, in this case, Thanksgiving, is best defined and understood through the eyes of others. Below is a message from one of the people the BWB team met with in Tanzania this past summer.  Billy is a recent graduate of the University of Miami and ran book drives with us there while he was a student.  After graduation, he joined the Jesuit Volunteers Corp and went to work in a school (The Loyola School) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

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Mary, David, Patrick… [that is Mary Murphy @ BWB, David Murphy, CEO of BWB, and Pat Plonski, director of Books For Africa, respectively]

Greetings from this side of the globe and happy thanksgiving….no turkey here so eat extra for me…

EOTF finally help the book distribution ceremony this past monday after sorting through all the books and determining what went where…in all they sent books to 602 secondary school, a bunch of primary schools (i forget the #) and 14 government libraries nation wide…it was a huge success and publicized well…my students who live in the city and have TVs say the ceremony was all over the news…during it both mr. basil (the exec. director) and mama mkapa expressed their sincere gratitude to books for africa and better world books….and even though we dont celebrate thanksgiving here, today all of us at loyola are forever grateful as well…attached is a picture from the event…hope all is well with you and your familiies this time of year…God bless you and the work you do…peace…
–bb

In Faith and Humble Service,
Billy  [last name edited for the sake of privacy]
Jesuit Volunteers International
Educator, Social Servant
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Click to Enlarge Image

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Empowering Students to Make a Difference

Posted by admin on 08.14.2006 at 2:51 pm

Billy is a former campus rep for University of Miami (and former high school teammate of Blog Editor, Jack Hanlon) who is now at the receiving end of our literacy efforts in Tanzania.  He met up with our group of BWB employees who visited Africa this summer and wrote this heartfelt note to share  his experience with us all.

“Oftentimes we never fully realize the global impact we can have from what we do on our college campuses.  We brought Better World Books to UM in Fall 2003, and in the four semesters I oversaw the bookdrives we brought in over 12,000 books to go towards Books for Africa.  At the time, I thought collecting books to benefit schools and students in the developing world was “a nice thing to do.”  Little did I know at the time that after graduating in May 2005, I would accept a two-year volunteer teaching position at a high school in one of the poorest parts of Tanzania, East Africa.  The school I teach at now is a recipient of books from BWB and BFA.  Living and teaching here has made me fully understand how important the work of these organizations and the students at college campuses who coordinate these efforts truly are.  For my students, providing them with books no longer seems as though it is simply a “nice thing to do;” it is the means to provide better education, to overcome poverty, and to have hope for a brighter future.  For us on this side of the globe, it means a world of difference.  Thank you to everyone who is giving us such hope.  We are forever grateful.”

– Billy Bludgus
Butler Volunteer Services Center
University of Miami

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