News

Books For Africa was honored to welcome His Excellency Daniel Ohene Agyekum, Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, as the keynote speaker at the annual BFA fundraising luncheon on April 28, 2010, at the St. Paul Town & Country Club. In honor of the Ambassador’s visit, Books For Africa is sending a 40-foot sea container of 22,000 books to the Ghana Library System to promote literacy. At the signing ceremony with BFA President Tom Gitaa, Ambassador Agyekum said, “I would like to express my government’s commitment to working with you [Books For Africa] on this.” Click on the link above to view a slideshow of the events...

Here are photos of the children and teachers from Life Christian Academy in Eldoret, Kenya, who received a 40-foot shipment of BFA books in July 2009. The students at Life Christian Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington, USA, worked for three years to raise the money to build a K-8 Christian school in Eldoret, Kenya. Then they worked for another year to raise the funds to ship them the 20,000+ books. Jackie Matthews of Life Christian Elementary School in Tacoma, Washington, reports: “They were so very excited to receive the books. Many of the students had never held a book in their hands before this shipment arrived!” Click on the link above for more info and to view more photos…

Books For Africa was a proud sponsor of the African Development Center of Minnesota gala on April 10, 2010. The African Development Center has for several years running been recognized as the top provider of small business loans in Minnesota, and the gala recognized these achievements. Pictured above at the gala are Hussein Samatar (Books For Africa board member and Executive Director of the African Development Center), Pat Plonski (Executive Director of Books For Africa), and Tom Gitaa (Board President of Books For Africa and Publisher of Mshale).

In February 2010, Lane Ayres, director of Books For Africa’s Law & Democracy Initiative, visited law schools and legal organizations in Ghana and Liberia. The most memorable time was the day he spent at the Grimes Law School in Monrovia, which received the first shipment of West law books from Thomson Reuters in January of 2009. (Dean David Jallah is pictured above.) Everyone gave testimonials as to how the books had improved teaching and learning at the law school. To view a slideshow and get more info, click on the link above...

Some of the estimated 2.5 million orphans in Uganda now have access to BFA books thanks to the nonprofit Bega kwa Bega. Alison Flath volunteered at this organization in 2009 and sent BFA a report with photos of the book distribution at some of the primary and secondary schools. She writes: "The education of young people must be a top priority, and your contribution is of enormous value." Click on the link above to view the photos...