Saint Paul, Minnesota, July 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Books For Africa, a non-profit based in St. Paul with a warehouse in Atlanta, today announced that it has shipped more than 3.1 million educational, library and law books to 18 African countries, a record year and an increase of 26 percent over last year.
The books are valued at over $33 million. Books For Africa shipped nearly 636,000 more books than last year in the fiscal year ended June 30. In addition, Books For Africa shipped 93 computers and e-readers containing 223,000 digital books, as well as 10 new law and human rights libraries.
Books For Africa remains the largest shipper of donated text and library books to the African continent, sending over 39 million books to 49 different countries since its founding in 1988.
Other highlights from the just-ended fiscal year include:
•Top recipient countries were Ethiopia (462,000 books); Nigeria (319,000); Kenya (308,000) and Ghana (242,000).
•100 Rotarians attending the national Rotary convention in Atlanta in June visited the Books For Africa Warehouse. In a Rotary Convention Special, Rotarians joined with Books For Africa to send books to Africa through partnerships leveraged at the convention.
•Twenty-five members of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders volunteered at the Books For Africa Warehouse in St. Paul on the July 18 Nelson Mandela International Day, named for the late South African leader and dedicated to service in his honor. The young leaders had been attending a six-week institute at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Integrative Leadership, located at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
•Books For Africa continued to partner with a number of organizations to ship and distribute more books including the Peace Corps, U.S. embassies in Africa, Out of Print Books, Better World Books, USAID, World Reader, Thomson Reuters and Little Free Library.
Books For Africa is now making plans to celebrate its 30th anniversary in January 2018 with a climb/hike up Table Mountain near Cape Town, South Africa. The hike will be led by Books For Africa Founder Tom Warth, who started the organization in 1988 after visiting a new library in Jinja, Uganda, that had few books.
Noting that there are over 500 million young people in Africa, Warth said that “despite the 39 million books, we still have a lot of work to do to end the book famine on the continent.”
Executive Director Patrick Plonski said everyone at Books For Africa was “proud of breaking a record last year by sending more than three million books to the students of Africa. We will continue to expand our efforts and increase our book shipments so we can put books in the hands of every child in Africa.”
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Attachments:
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/717a3114-6357-478a-9a84-af89a403cfb0
Attachments:
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0cfee8ef-58e2-40ba-b8b8-d42e7d4135b2