Books For Africa Ships 130,000 Books January 3-5 From Atlanta to Students in Somalia and Somaliland
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Books For Africa, a nonprofit with its main warehouse in Atlanta and offices in St. Paul, Minnesota, recently shipped over 130,000 books to schools and libraries in Somalia and Somaliland.
The books were donated by people in Georgia, Minnesota and across the country to help the students in Africa. The books are being trucked to the port of Savannah and shipped to the port of Berbera, Somalia, in five 40-foot containers.
The shipment was supported in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Funded Transportation program. The program provides logistical support to nonprofits in conjunction with the State Department.
The shipment also includes Somali language folktale books, which were produced as part of our BFA Publishing initiative.
The book drive was organized by the Tima-Ade Foundation.
“We are grateful to collaborating with Books-For-Africa for their books donation,” said Zaki Isaac, President of Time-Ade Foundation. “We also thank the U.S. Department of Defense for assisting and facilitating the shipment.
“This is a remarkable project aimed at improving the literacy rate for the citizens of Somalia and Somaliland. Most importantly, it will also cover the need for accessibility of textbooks for grade school and higher education or college students.
“In Africa, children and youth are hungry for education but they are lacking the infrastructures and resources such as quality textbooks of science, technology, languages, arts, and many other subjects.”
“We are happy to collaborate with the Tima-Ade Foundation and the Department of Defense to send more than 130,000 books to educational centers in Somalia and Somaliland,” said Patrick Plonski, Executive Director of BFA. “It is a wonderful way to start out the new year and we hope the books will make a real difference in the lives of the African students.”
The organizations receiving the books include the Gabiley National Library, a brand-new library where 55,000 books from BFA will help fill up the shelves.
Other recipients include the Center for African Peace and Research in Bosaso; the East Africa University in Puntland and the Marodi Relief Organization in Hargeisa, Somaliland.
BFA’s Atlanta warehouse in recent years (pre-COVID) has attracted among the highest number of volunteers annually of all nonprofits in the Atlanta area.
Books For Africa remains the largest shipper of donated text and library books to the African continent, shipping over 53 million books to all 55 countries on the African continent since 1988. Last year alone, Books For Africa shipped 3.1 million books, valued at over $26.2 million, and 224 computers and e-readers containing over 885,000 digital books, to 28 African countries. More than $3.1 million was raised last year to ship these books to the students of Africa.
Tima-Ade Foundation is a relief and charity organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Its mission is to provide relief assistance and support and charitable contributions to the Eastern Africa region. Contact: 612-478-8281 or Timaadefoundation@outlook.com or Facebook at Tima-Ade Foundation.