Congrats, Rob! We’re proud to work with you.

A few words about Rob and Read International from the Enterprising Young Brits website:

“READ International is an innovative social venture that works successfully as a business whilst providing social, ethical and environmental benefits. With a network of 40 student volunteer-led projects, READ International collects disused books from UK schools and distributes them through out Uganda and Tanzania.”

“Inspired by a friends Gap Year teaching in Tanzania, Robert attempted to find a solution for the lack of teaching resources there. With a similar syllabus as in England, the solution seemed obvious to Robert and the idea for READ International was born. The company has not only saved tonnes of teaching resources from UK landfill, it has also supported over 260,000 Tanzanian school children to date.”

You can see all the Enterprising Young Brit award winners here.

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/.

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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

“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