News

It may have been Saturday morning, but hundreds of students, teachers and parents crammed into the Eurocon Primary School in Elsies River — just outside Cape Town, South Africa — to welcome members of the Minnesota Orchestra. The orchestra's two-week tour is taking the musicians to a total of five cities before its done. On Friday night, the players performed to a packed house at Cape Town City Hall. Yet they played just as seriously Saturday for the grade-schoolers and their families in the hard-worn but carefully tended concrete building miles from the bright lights.

On June 9th, 2018, BFA held a ceremony in Atlanta to celebrate the departure of a shipping container to Central African Republic. This historic container marked the achievement of BFA's long-standing goal of reaching all 55 countries on the African continent!

Books For Africa’s annual fundraising luncheon, "Education: Rooted in Reading," was highlighted by a keynote speech from His Excellency Edward Yakobe Sawerengera, Ambassador of Malawi to the United States! The room was packed with over 300 BFA supporters and VIPs, including representatives from Presenting Sponsor Thomson Reuters, Platinum Sponsor Medtronic, as well as state and local government officials and judiciary members.

On April 19, 2018, U.S. Army Civil Affairs Team(CAT) 4032 delivered 27 boxes of donated books to the Garoua Regional Linguistic Center (Centre Linguistique Regional de Garoua) in Garoua, Cameroon in partnership with Books For Africa.

In January 2018, a group of 23 Books For Africa supporters visited Cape Town, South Africa, with the purpose of raising funds in celebration of Books For Africa’s 30th Anniversary. Following a series of site visits across South Africa, BFA representatives struck out to learn more from recipients about the challenges and success points of their projects.

Books For Africa Executive Director Patrick Plonski has spent the past 3 months in Africa building relationships and visiting BFA recipients. Following a tour celebrating BFA's 30th Anniversary and a series of partner meetings in Cape Town, South Africa, the first leg of Patrick’s journey took him to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Kenya. The second half of his visit included stops in Ethiopia and Seychelles, as well as attending the World Literacy Summit in Oxford, England.