News

Abdullahi Mire, a native of Somalia who fled violence at the age of three with his mother and two siblings and spent 23 years in a refugee camp in Kenya, was recently named as this year’s Nansen Global Laureate, the UN Refugee Agency’s highest honor. 

Ron Aminzade, a retired sociology professor at the Universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota, met Melaku Belay, an Ethiopian dancer and director of the Fendika Cultural Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2020 when Belay was performing at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. It was the beginning of an impactful friendship that is making a difference for children and adults in Ethiopia.

Books For Africa recently partnered with sponsor Greg Davis, the Pastoral Women Council, and Emanyata School to get a shipment of books to Loliondo, Tanzania. This shipment included a Girls Empowerment Collection and a special add-on of a Swahili-language maternal and women’s health book!

Read about Books For Africa's 35th anniversary gala, get updates on projects in Malawi and South Sudan, and more!

Books For Africa was honored to host Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn in Minnesota on Friday, November 3rd, 2023, for discussions at the MINN Summit, and at a Books For Africa reception hosted by Thomson Reuters and Humphrey School Dean Nisha Botchwey.

Three groups of volunteers from International Hotel Group (IHG), a total of 36 people on three shifts, sorted books in Books For Africa's Georgia warehouse. Read more about their experience, and why they found the volunteer work so rewarding!