News

Books For Africa held its annual Summit Society Reception at the Ugandan Embassy in Washington, D.C., hosted by Her Excellency Oliver Wonekha, Ugandan Ambassador to the U.S. and this year's Summit Society Chair. The event also welcomed His Excellency Garang Diing Akuong, South Sudanese Ambassador to the U.S., His Excellency Lt. General Joseph Henry Smith, Ghanaian Ambassador to the U.S., and His Excellency Ernest Ndabashinze, Burundi Ambassador to the U.S. Thomson Reuters, represented by Sharon Sayles-Belton, vice president, Government Affairs and Community Relations, was the platinum sponsor for this event.

In 1988, BFA founder Tom Warth visited the town library in Jinja, Uganda. He was dismayed to see that the shelves were quite bare & in dire need of good, quality books. Last month, Tom returned to the Jinja Library with Executive Director Pat Plonski to celebrate the creation of BFA there 28 years ago!

Books For Africa is growing! To better accommodate that growth, and to better serve the organizations and individuals with whom we partner, our Atlanta Warehouse recently moved into a new, much larger space.

BFA founder Tom Warth decided to celebrate his 80th birthday by walking across Zanzibar Island in East Africa, all in the name of ending the African book famine! Tom has also walked across The Gambia and scaled Mount Kilimanjaro to promote literacy and education in Africa. Having just completed the two day trek in "pretty fearsome heat and humidity," Tom reports that he is "feeling the pain," from the walk, but otherwise well and is enthusiastic about the impact the walk will have on communities and schools in the area.

Recent fundraising events in Saint Paul, Minnesota and Atlanta, Georgia have delivered over 66,000 high-quality books, computers, and other educational supplies to libraries and classrooms across the African continent!

40 foot containers of BFA books have recently been delivered to Kisii University in Kenya and the Sierra Leone Book Trust. Read more to learn about the different models these organizations used to successfully organize their container projects, and see feedback from recipients! Nelson Mandela said that "no country can really develop unless its citizens are educated," and this idea lies at the heart of BFA's mission. By putting high quality educational materials into the hands of as many African learners as possible, we can help to empower the next generation of African leaders, and promote social and economic development across the African continent.