News

Show someone you care by giving the gift of literacy! Honor a friend or family member this holiday season with a donation to Books For Africa, and we will send an e-card or handwritten note to your honoree letting them know that books are on their way to an African classroom in their name!

Minnesotans Wyn and Sunny Ray share a deep connection with Ethiopia; in 2008, they began working with the remote village of Wekin, Ethiopia. An immediate area of concern for the village was the school “library,” which contained only about 50 English books - in 2013, the Wekin Book Project was born to help put high-quality books and learning materials in the hands of the students and local community. 

Books For Africa has received Charity Navigator’s 4-star rating for the sixth consecutive year, the highest possible rating. Charity Navigator is the country’s premiere charity evaluator and rates charities on sound fiscal management and commitment to accountability and transparency.   The perfect Charity Navigator rating comes just before Books For Africa and other groups around the world are celebrating International Literacy Day on September 8, sponsored for the past 50 years by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. 

Books For Africa has partnered with Merck & Co. to donate 52 tablets loaded with the new Merck Medical Manual mobile app!  These tablets were delivered by fellows from the State Department's Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI), and will provide valuable resources to medical practitioners across the African continent. 

Leaving the Books For Africa warehouse in Atlanta last week was a 40-foot sea container holding 22,000 books departing for the Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation Project in Monrovia, Liberia.  In addition to large quantities of books on general topics, a law/human rights library was provided courtesy of Thomson Reuters and the BFA Law & Democracy Initiative.

The annual reception honoring Books For Africa’s Kilimanjaro Society donors was held July 27 at the University Club of St. Paul. It was also attended by 25 young African leaders in residency at the Humphrey Institute of the University of Minnesota and featured a poolside concert with local reggae band Ipso Facto!