Books For Africa

Books For Africa. A simple name for an organization with a simple mission. We collect, sort, ship, and distribute books to children in Africa. Our goal: to end the book famine in Africa.

Books For Africa is the world’s largest shipper of donated books to the African continent. Since 1988, Books For Africa has shipped over 26 million high-quality text and library books to children and adults in 46 African countries. Millions more are needed.

It costs $10,300 to send a sea container to most major sea ports of books and computers to Africa. Your donation will enable Books For Africa to send even more books to children in Africa who are hungry to read, hungry to learn.

To learn more about groups currently fundraising to ship books to specific African countries, view the Projects page>>

Success Stories & News

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Books For Africa Launches a New Agriculture, Natural Resource, and Vocational Skills Initiative

Books For Africa has a simple name and a simple mission: to end the book famine in Africa. Books are the foundation of a strong education, and education is the key to development. Books For Africa is proud to send books that address a real need in Africa: agricultural development. Why Agriculture? Hunger is the #1 health risk in the world (World Food Programme). The world’s population passed seven billion in early 2012. Feeding the world depends on efficient food and agricultural systems. Farmers will need to know the best farming practices for their environment to produce food to earn a decent living and feed the world.

Books For Africa thanks Cargill for the donation of books to Ghana!

100,000 books arrived in the Tema region in early April thanks to the Cargill Sustainable Cocoa program. In addition to textbooks for 27 primary and secondary schools, Cargill also sent a full West Core Law Library for the University of Ghana as a part of the Jack Mason Law & Democracy Initiative. “We are extremely pleased to be supporting such a worthwhile project, providing key educational resources to schools in our local cocoa communities,” explained Kojo Amoo-Gottfried, Managing Director for Cargill Ghana. “Most of the students at these local schools have only had limited access to textbooks before and so by partnering with Books for Africa we can take a few steps towards addressing this.”

BFA Executive Director Keynoted at World Literacy Summit

Executive director of Books For Africa, Patrick Plonski, PhD, keynoted at the 2012 World Literacy Summit at Oxford University on April 1st. Plonski presented on the Educational Return on Investment for Literacy Initiatives, including analysis of the impact of donated books on literacy in Africa.

Books Delivered to the Children of Livingstone, Zambia

The Happy Africa Foundation knows just how exciting 22,000 books can be. So do the children of Zambia after a full container of books was delivered to Livingstone in January 2012! February was brimming with activity as the staff of the Happy Africa Project sorted and delivered all of the books to schools and libraries throughout the region.

Check out the 2011 BFA Annual Report

Success Story Archive> >

Books For Africa is a simple idea, but its impact is transformative. For us, literacy is quite simply the bridge from misery to hope.
— Kofi Annan, former U.N. Secretary-General

Books For Africa has earned its 5th consecutive 4-star rating for its ability to efficiently manage and grow its finances. Only 4% of the charities we rate have received at least 5 consecutive 4-star evaluations, indicating that Books For Africa consistently executes its mission in a fiscally responsible way and outperforms most other charities in America.
— Charity Navigator, 2011