Africa Trip: Day 14, Jason

Posted by admin on 07.22.2010 at 4:42 pm

We finished up our last round of school visits in Capetown yesterday.  We were very fortunate to visit so many schools in various stages of improvement.

Have your say » | Tagged Africa 2010, Literacy Trips, books for africa, invisible children, room to read

Africa Trip: Day 9, Maura

Posted by admin on 07.16.2010 at 12:57 pm

The trip is going well.  Uganda was as emotionally stirring as South Africa is beautiful.  I was not aware of how beautiful a country South Africa is nor was I as prepared to be as touched by the people of Uganda as I was.  Keep in mind that Uganda is basically a country that has been upset by war.  A violent conflict that has taken its toll on the people of the country.  Imagine having to leave your home just to be safe and then not be able to return once the war is over because you no longer have title to the land as it was handed down from your father’s father?  This has happened to many.  If you were widowed while in the camps that were built to house you to keep you safe, you cannot return home because it is your husband’s family that owns the home you once knew.  So what happens then and where do you go?  There are way too many here trying to figure that out.

The people of Uganda have been through so much I find it so unbelievable that they are as open and friendly as they are.  They have to be one of the warmest people I have met in my life.  They welcome strangers into their homes, feed them, and pray for them upon departure.  They were honest and open when talking to us.  The people we were meeting through the Legacy Scholarship Program offered by Invisible Children were the proud parents and it was clear that they just want the best for their children.

The folks of South Africa have been as warm.  The students or Learners as they are called here have sung and danced for us at each location.  The teachers and other students have given speeches to thank us for our work.  I must say I have met some very poised 7th graders that are able to speak to a crowd of people in a stirring way!  Most of the libraries have been set up and are in good shape but could always use more space and books.  They serve an incredible amount of food to share with us and it is an outright celebration that we have come to visit.  Next time I visit home the family is really going to have to do some things differently because a person could get use to this type of treatment!
Read more…

Have your say » | Tagged Africa 2010, Literacy Trips, books for africa, invisible children, Legacy Scholarship Program, room to read, South Africa, uganda, Zulu

Africa Trip: Day 5, Audrey

Posted by admin on 07.13.2010 at 8:00 pm

Hello Again! Our itinerary has kept us quite busy, and will continue to for the next week until we fly back to the States. We are now in South Africa and looking forward to visiting our Room to Read and Books for Africa partners.

Our last few days in Uganda were very memorable. We all had the opportunity to travel for one day with Invisible Children mentors as they made visits to families and students. Invisible Children sponsors a scholarship program for nearly 700 students in the Gulu, Uganda area. These students not only have their education paid for, but are partnered with a mentor who helps the student to focus on their studies. Many of the students attend boarding schools as well and the mentors communicate between the students and families so news from home makes it to school and back again.

The main mode of transportation for the mentors is cheap, fast and easy to maneuver in the busy Gulu streets:  motorbikes! A number of us even cruised a little way out of town and into the bush, where the countryside is green, lush and covered in a mixture of tall grass, tasseling maize, and palm trees. I stopped at five different homes over the course of the day (which included a break at lunch for the local high school volleyball tournament) with Jefferey, who mentors 32 students in all.  The conversations were in the local language, and usually centered around the health of the family members and other happenings at home. It was a fascinating and humbling experience to be invited into homes, offered maize (like sweet corn, without the sweet, butter or salt!) and soda and hear the conversations translated from my mentor. What an incredible look into the real day-to-day experiences of a wonderfully hospitable and open culture.

So much of our trip has been enlightening and terrific. However, I feel it is only right to share some of our more anecdotal experiences as well.  In preparation for a cruise on the Nile which was planned for our time at Murchison Falls National Park (see Jason’s upcoming post), one of our members visited the Pharmacy asking for a motion sickness remedy. Upon leaving, walking to our restaurant and opening the box and reading the details, we found it was actually a remedy for morning sickness. This person was able to return the purchase for a full refund.

Ugandan vehicles have to be built to survive hard and bumpy roads in the dry season and large mud puddles and slicks in the wet season. Our vehicle was from the Invisible Children office, and held up wonderfully for our long hours on the road. One afternoon, as we were about halfway through a five our trek, we stopped to stretch. As soon as everyone was out of the car, we heard a hissing and looked; our rear tire was losing air, and quickly went completely flat.  Luckily we had a spare with us, but the jack we had wasn’t tall enough to get the vehicle far enough off the ground! The next hour (maybe more) was spent trying to place the tire in the perfect pothole, while keeping the axel on high ground so  we would be able to get the tire off. The truly ironic part was that this was one of the smoothest gravel roads we had been on in days…

More stories to come!

–Audrey Mohr

P.S.   Wanna see how the whole thing started?  Check out the earlier Africa trip posts:

On the ground in Africa
Africa Trip: Day 1, Audrey
Africa Trip: Day 1, Maura

1 Comment » | Tagged Africa 2010, Literacy Trips, books for africa, invisible children, room to read, uganda

Better World Bar Mitzvah

Posted by Chip on 03.29.2010 at 10:48 am

In today’s guest post – our youngest contributor to date talks about how he worked with us on his Bar Mitzvah project to bring attention to Books for Africa and their amazing mission!

My name is Andrew Goldberg and I recently had my Bar Mitzvah. As part of my Bar Mitzvah, I chose to do a Mitzvah project. This is a social action project where I got to choose something that was important to me. I wanted to do something with Better World Books, since I really believe in the work they are doing and the non-profit organizations they support.

I asked people to purchase children’s books through the Books For Africa link on the Better World Books website. I have been concerned about Africa’s debt and plight for a long time, and I thought this would be a good way to help.

The purchased books went to a local organization here in Little Rock, Arkansas that provides books for kids to read to their incarcerated mothers.  Then a portion of the proceeds went to Books for Africa, so my Mitzvah project helped both locally and globally. To my delight, many people purchased books. This was the first time many of my friends had heard of Better World Books and I encouraged them to continue supporting both BWB and Books for Africa.

4 Comments » | Tagged Company News, Impact, Our Partners, books for africa

My Trip to Books For Africa

Posted by admin on 10.26.2009 at 11:32 am

by Paul “Paco” Miller

On October 2nd and 3rd I had the opportunity to represent Better World Books (BWB) in Minneapolis/St. Paul at several events put on by our partner Books For Africa (BFA). Those two days were jammed packed with events that made me find my way around the twin cities, but were well worth the trip. My biggest take away is that BFA is a great partner for BWB. Everything about the trip reaffirmed how reputable an organization it is and made abundantly clear the important role it plays in the great task of confronting the obstacles to literacy and education in Africa.

The events ranged from breakfast with Dr. Augustine P. Mahiga, the Tanzanian Permanent Representative to the United Nations; lunch with Johnnie Carson, the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; a conference on Literacy and Education in 21st Century Africa co-hosted by the University of Read more…

7 Comments » | Tagged Our Partners, books for africa, Dr. Augustine P. Mahiga, Johnnie Carson, Paco Miller

We found a new way to support our Non-Profit Literacy Partners

Posted by admin on 06.16.2009 at 1:24 pm

Great news!  As you probably already know, promoting literacy has always been woven into the fabric of our business.  Now we’re delighted to announce we’ve given an ownership stake to our non-profit literacy partners.   Yup…we’ve granted Incentive Stock Options to these partners – as far as we know, a first for social enterprise.

The purpose of the plan, put together with the help of our primary investor, Good Capital, is to ensure that our literacy partners can have a stake in and share in our financial success.

We’ve put aside roughly 5% of the company for use in stock option grants to an initial group of five literacy partners (with potential to add others in the future):  Books for Africa, Invisible Children, Room To Read, WorldFund and the National Center for Family Literacy.

One of our fearless leaders Xavier Helgesen puts it best:  “We created Better World Books to show that it is possible to do good while at the same time run a successful company.  Our literacy partners are essential to our mission, and we want them to flourish.  Today’s announcement ensures that as our company grows, our partners will too.”

Check out the press release to get all the details. Or read more about it at Change.org.

3 Comments » | Tagged Impact, Our Partners, better world books, books for africa, Good Capital, Incentive Stock Options, invisible children, National Center for Family Literacy, room to read, Social Enterprise, social entrepreneurship, worldfund, Xavier Helgesen

We can’t thank you enough!

Posted by Dana on 05.07.2009 at 12:31 pm

It is because of you — all of you — our amazing customers, book drive organizers, librarians, fans and friends that we were voted THE MOST PROMISING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR by Business Week.

We are so proud of what your support has been able to do for our Non-Profit partners.  So far we have:

With your help, Books for Africa, Invisible Children, Worldfund, Room to Read and the National Center for Family Literacy are doing amazing things to increase literacy around the world!

Thanks!  And please keep spreading the word!

2 Comments » | Tagged Impact, Our Partners, book drive, books for africa, business week, BusinessWeek, invisible children, National Center for Family Literacy, room to read, social entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship, Social Impact, Winner, worldfund

Getting Books to (Walk) Sudan

Posted by Yanna on 12.11.2008 at 12:45 pm

[To see previous efforts with Walk Sudan and getting books to Africa, you can look here, here and here and if you feel like reading a newspaper version, look here].

Many of us have heard the plight of the 27,000 “lost boys” of Sudan, their perilous 1,000 mile walk left more than half dead, and the rest came home to a country devastated by war, bare of essentials like clean water and schools. Matt Hoffman, an alumni Phi Theta Kappa member from Illinois Central College, was touched by these horrific stories and moved to immediate action. Matt reflects, “A good friend of mine, Sean Fahey from Endless Eye, informed me that his 501(c)3 had committed to raising funds to shoot a documentary film to raise awareness about the situation in Southern Sudan.” Sean’s organization has been working with Justin Machien Luoi, a Lost Boy, to build a library, a school, and provide clean water for Panyijiar County, Southern Sudan. Matt wanted to know how Upsilon Mu, Illinois Central College’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter, could get involved. They talked for a few hours that night and decided to design a “walk event” in Peoria, Illinois. That is how WalkSUDAN was born.

WalkSUDAN is a project intended to raise awareness and funds to Read more…

1 Comment » | Tagged Impact, Our Partners, africa, books for africa, endless eye, Illinois, pacodes, peoria, sudan, walk sudan

World AIDS Day

Posted by Jack on 12.01.2008 at 1:42 pm

From the offical website: The 1st of December, World AIDS Day, is the day when individuals and organisations from around the world come together to bring attention to the global AIDS epidemic. 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Whilst we have come a long ways since 1988, there is still much more to be done.

Read more…

1 Comment » | Tagged Impact, Our Partners, books for africa, literacy, World AIDS Day

Books for Africa Gala

Posted by Xavier on 09.30.2008 at 11:33 am

What a night it was! David, Niko and I were privileged to attend Books For Africa’s 20th anniversary gala. We all had especially big smiles on our faces when we saw a chart with the number of books shipped to Africa start skyrocketing in 2003 after being almost flat for 10 years. I wonder what happened in 2003? Well, they hired a dynamic director (Pat Plonski) and partnered with a certain online bookseller. Now they ship 75,000 books PER WEEK.

The momentum was unbelievable – there were two congresspeople in attendance, and an address to the audience recorded by none other than Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the UN.

Better World Books is still easily Books For Africa’s largest source of funding, and we presented them with a $95,000 check just to remind everyone. BWB delivers more funding (and a lot of books!) than they receive from OPEC, USAID, or the Minnesota Vikings, all supporters as well.

So Better World Books, be proud of every day you spend working. As Tom Warth, BFA’s founder says, “the children of Africa thank you”.

Have your say » | Tagged Impact, books for africa, Impact, Kofi Annan, Our Partners, Pat Plonski, Xavier Helgesen