African Library Project News

At Carl W. Goetz Middle School in Jackson, New Jersey, students, faculty and staff have found a way to change the lives of their counterparts living halfway around the world in Botswana, Africa, by collecting an astonishing eighteen libraries worth of books in the last two years.

On July 11th, the African Library Project, based in California, awarded their inaugural Compassion in Action Award for an outstanding book drive conducted by an organization to Carl W. Goetz Middle School. Last year Goetz broke the African Library Project’s record for the most libraries started in a single book drive by collecting over 5,000 children’s books and starting 5 primary school libraries in Botswana. This year the school collected nearly 14,000 gently used children’s books to start thirteen libraries, bringing their total to eighteen libraries in two years. The school also raised the funds to ship the books.

Goetz’s Library Media Specialist Lisa Crate led their amazing book drives, supported by the entire student body and faculty. Crate inspired students to collect books by teaching them about the challenges Africans face. Individual students went door-to-door in their neighborhoods collecting books, and classrooms competed against each other to see who could collect the most books. Goetz also received support from Barnes and Noble Bookstore and the Scholastic Book Fair. All in all, Goetz ended up shipping 127 boxes of books to the African Library Project’s warehouse. The books were then consolidated with books from book drives around the country before being containerized and shipped to Africa on July 3rd.

Some of us spend our whole lives dreaming of one day making a difference in the world.  Thirteen year old Tatiana Grossman of Palo Alto is not twiddling her thumbs waiting to grow up so that “one day” might come. Last year, Tatiana conducted a book drive in Palo Alto in concert with the re-opening of the renovated Palo Alto Children’s Library.  She collected over 4500 gently used children’s books and the money to ship them, starting three libraries – one in Lesotho and two in Botswana.

On July 11th, the African Library Project, based in California, awarded Tatiana their inaugural Compassion in Action Award for an outstanding book drive conducted by an individual. This award honors the African Library Project’s outstanding individual book drive organizer of the year. The Award was announced at the African Library Project’s Launch of the 2008-2009 Season during which ALP announced a goal of starting 209 libraries during the upcoming year.

When Tatiana, an avid reader, discovered that there are many children in the world, especially Africa, that do not have access to books, she could not imagine growing up without books.  She wanted to do something about it, and turned to ALP for help. Initially, Tatiana doubted her ability to collect 1000 books, the goal of all book drive organizers for the African Library Project. However, by spreading the word to Palo Alto library patrons and the media, Tatiana collected enough books to start libraries at Sebako and Lesedi La Pela Primary Schools in Botswana and a community library in Majara, Lesotho. Fed Ex donated the domestic shipping costs and Tati’s friends, family and library patrons donated the international shipping costs.

Tatiana hopes to visit some of her libraries so she can see for herself the difference she is making.  She is planning another book drive for this fall to start more libraries in Africa.

According to Olga Tsimanyane, Botswana’s partnership with the African Library Project has begun affecting Government policies regarding education. Specifically, the Government is incorporating the establishment of primary school libraries, courtesy of African Library Project books, into its Vision 2016, a “Botswana blue print that seeks to propel Botswana’s socio-economic and political development into that of a competitive, winning, and prosperous nation.” Consisting of 7 target pillars of development, Vision 2016’s principal pillar is to build “an educated and informed nation.”

Before the African Library Project, Tsimanyane claims the Government always wanted to build libraries in their schools. Unfortunately, due to a lack of books, potential projects worked only “haphazardly.” Now that the partnership with ALP has been made, not only have 67 libraries been established in the model South Region, but every school already established in Botswana would like to receive books from America. The Ministry of Education has decided that all new primary schools to be built in Botswana will now be built with a library. The Government is providing clearance for ALP books to pass through customs duty free. As Tsimanyane puts it, the incorporation of African Library Projects books into the primary schools have “changed the Government’s attitudes significantly” regarding what can or can’t be done.

Along with the establishment of libraries, Tsimanyane will be heading the initiative for monitoring and evaluating the success of libraries in Botswana. Having just taken a Monitoring and Evaluation course in Ottawa, Canada, Tsimanyane is taking home ideas for evaluating the functionality of ALP libraries through surveys, site visits, and test score comparisons.

The amazing changes in Botswana’s educational outlook, through the advent of African Library Project books and libraries, could not have been implemented without the will, drive, and compassion of individuals such as Olga Tsimanyane. It is through her on-the- ground efforts that this project has not only begun as a success, but is looking endlessly promising for the future. When asked if she thought that there might be any potential setbacks in such promising educational developments, Olga simply and ever-optimistically replied, “Of course not, for God will provide.”

When Olga Tsimanyane recalls the momentous telephone call from African Library Project founder Chris Bradshaw in October of 2006, she joyfully exclaims that “it was magic!” As the Principal Education Officer of the South Region District of Education in Botswana, Tsimanyane couldn’t believe her ears when she heard that Chris wanted to ship her children books from America. As she puts it, “it was an act of God.” And now that Tsimanyane, the Botswana Government, and African Library Project have been in partnership for over a year and a half, 67 primary school libraries have been established, books for 53 more are en route and another 100 libraries planned for the coming school year.

In a recent visit to the United States, where she met with African Library Project volunteers and supporters, Tsimanyane spoke of the impact that books from America were having, especially upon the children of Botswana. Having visited many of the schools where African Library Project libraries have been built, Tsimanyane can speak for the sheer enthusiasm and delight that these books are bringing to the children. The children “are overwhelmed” by the gorgeous books, especially the American ones because they are “colorful, shapely, and attractive.” Each day, children look forward to their library time so much that they constantly question the teachers, “Is it library time yet?”

Not only are the children enraptured with daily library visits, they are building reading, writing, and speech skills to the level that they are writing their own songs and poems, using the American books as models. From Tsimanyane’s eyes, books are clearly “the link” to these children’s progressive education. The arrival of these books has led to an increase of children using the English language in their home environments, where in the past only the native tongue would be spoken. Children are even bringing library books home, spreading their love of books to their family.

The sheer joy felt by these children has spread to their parents, who not only see the developmental aspect that books have for their children, but are becoming self-motivated into educational related action never before seen in Botswana. According to Tsimanyane, parents are exhibiting a new attitude of “volunteerism” that “was not present in Botswana at all before the arrival of books from America.” Inspired by Americans sending books to their children, parents are making heightened efforts “to do their part” in contributing to their children’s education. One way parents have become motivated is by incorporating African cultural education into school and household lessons, whereby traditional dance and song, national dishes, plowing methods, even appropriate behavior towards in-laws are being relayed to these knowledge-thirsty children.

The PTAs of Botswana’s South Region are playing a major role in running the day to day operations of the libraries, Parents are volunteering to hold open the libraries, restock books and check out books.. At Bakgatla Primary School, one especially motivated parent comes everyday at 7:50 a.m., running the school library until late afternoon. Olga reports that there is a strong desire “not to disappoint the Americans, who have given us the gift of books.”

With parents motivated into volunteerism, and children motivated into learning, the impact of these books and libraries has been tremendous. Thousands of lives have been impacted, and a country’s educational system has been changed forever.

Olga Tsimananyane, the coordinator of our primary school libraries in Botswana, brought a large bag filled with hundreds of thank you letters from the students and staff of about 20 schools during her recent visit. All of the letters expressed a deep appreciation of our libraries and the beautiful books we send.

We have passed on the original letters to our American partner, but wanted to share their flavor with you. Here are two sample letters we received:

1) Magoriapitse Primary School, Staff Letter, 30 May 2008

Dear Members of the US Partner Organization,

The Magoriapitse Primary School Staff, pupils and the community would like to thank you for the books you have given us.

These books would develop everybody reading skills and will help as we will be doing our research projects, will make us thirst for reading. They will serve as eye openers to every member of the community – young and old as we are heading 2016 in our country.

Your giving us these books shows that indeed the world is a global community where continents care for other continents’ needs.

Thank you, God will bless you.

Yours sincerely,
Basiamisi Tselayakhumo (on behalf of Magoriapitse Staff, Pupils and Community)

2) Magoriapitse Primary School, Student Letter, 2 June 2008

Dear friend,

I would like to send greetings to you. Myself, I am just fine. I write this letter to say thanks to you about the books that you sent to us from America. The books play a major role to our school students as well as our teachers.

Many students nowadays like going to library because every topic we need are inside those books. Students of our school are becoming intelligent since those books arrived. Teachers also like studying from some books before they teach us. They are also helpful for cooks and people around our school.

I was so pleased to you for the books you gave to our school continue with your helpful idea.

Love from
Aobakwe Gaboutluelwe, Standard Four (10 years old)

Doing good things is reward enough by itself, but recognition never hurts. Especially not when that recognition comes from the city mayor, the county Board of Supervisors, a senator, a congresswoman, and the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And for everything that Mountain View High School did, they certainly deserved that recognition.

Propelled by the high school’s Leo Club, Mountain View High School, in Mountain View, California, was able to collect 1,182 books and $200 in donations in just one week, meeting an African Library Project container shipping deadline. Inspired by Leo Club President Daniel Khalessi, club members attached flyers describing the African Library Project to hundreds of brown paper shopping bags, and passed these out, and envelopes for cash donations, to participating teachers. Club members also visited staff and faculty meetings and lunch sessions to promote the project and ask for support.

The Sunnyvale Lions Club, which sponsors the Leo Club, was also there to provide support and guidance. Local citizen Hugh Donagher initially shared the idea with the Mountain View High club members. “I was so excited about the idea of kids helping other kids around the globe that I introduced them to the idea of running a book drive and creating a library in Africa.” He helped set up a meeting between the Leo Club and African Library Project founder Chris Bradshaw, and let the Leo Club members take it from there.

The book drive is over, but the Leo Club has not stopped promoting literacy in Africa and around the world. They recently held a mixer event at Yahoo! with other Leo Clubs to encourage them to hold their own book drives, and they will be holding a follow-up drive next year.

Their efforts were so successful that they were awarded proclamation of commendations from Tom Means, Mayor of Mountain View, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, Senator Elaine Alquist, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Governor Schwarzenegger, who praised the dedication they had shown: “Thanks to your countless hours of service, you created a library in Africa and helped many gain greater access to the wonders of reading.”

On March 30th, the 100 enthusiasts interested in African Literacy who made it to Kepler’s Bookstore, had a real treat in store for them: the world premier of House of Books: In Their Own Words. The video was created by documentary filmmaker Anne Evans and documentary photojournalist Lesley Louden, who traveled to Lesotho and Botswana to record how ALP’s successful libraries have impacted life in those communities. It showed how the libraries, the result of so many successful US book drives, function, how villagers use them and how important they are in providing opportunities in a desperately poor region.

It really was ALP’s afternoon. Chris Bradshaw, the organization’s founder, brought us up to date on library progress – 150 and counting – talking about everything from running multiple book drives, to containerized shipping, to the importance of our African partners. She introduced many people whose experiences have helped promote ALP’s mission.

Matthews Tisatayane, a member of the ALP board, spoke about his childhood in rural Malawi and his later life as a school teacher, in both cases without books. When Mathews bought his first book at age 19, it was so precious to him that he carried it everywhere he went and slept with it in his bed at night. He is overjoyed now to be able to help bring books to so many Africans in his role as an ALP board member.

Gareth Lacy, a Returned Peace Corps volunteer, described what it was like to establish an ALP library at Kingsgate Primary School in Mafeteng, Lesotho. For fun, he placed a cell phone call to Kingsgate’s principal, holding his I Phone up to Kepler’s microphone for all to hear. Sleepily, the principal expressed his thanks to ALP even though it was 12:30 am in Lesotho at the time!

Then we heard from a parade of book drive organizers. some as young as seven years old – Girl Scouts, a Leo’s Club president, school librarians, middle school entrepreneurs, corporate managers, a bat mitzvah – all of whom related their personal experiences running ALP book drives and shared their feelings about performing such good deeds.

Jessica Crosby of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania isn’t collecting books for her school, her club, or as a service project. Her motivation is generosity and goodwill borne out of her interest in causes in Africa and a desire to do her part. Well Jessica, we’d say you’re doing a great job!

Crosby, who works for an orthopedic practice, has gathered books and shipping funds via “karma, and word of mouth.” With the help of friends, coworkers, and a spur of the moment inquiry with her local Barnes and Noble bookstore, Crosby’s independent endeavor has grown into a community effort. Her project quickly spread, it was featured in the local Almanac and city newspaper, and her undertaking is still growing.

To promote their book drive, on May 3rd, the South Hills Village, PA Barnes and Noble will be hosting an Authentic African Story Quilt and How to Make Your Own Story Quilt by local fiber artist Tina Williams Brewer and local authors Karen Jones and Dave Boreland.

And to make matters even more interesting, Jessica worked with Barnes and Noble nationwide to create the following scenario. On May 3rd, bring this flyer to any Barnes and Noble location in the country, and a portion of your purchase will be used to fund shipping costs or purchase more books for ALP/Africa. Jessica’s inspirational enterprise is off to an incredible start, so please, help support the African Library Project, and Jessica’s book drive in Pennsylvania, while you pick up that missing volume for your collection.

Thanks to one of our book driver organizers, Jessica Crosby and Friends based in Pittsburgh, PA, all of the U.S. Barnes & Noble stores have agreed to make a donation to the African Library Project. Just use one of the attached vouchers at any Barnes & Noble on Saturday, May 3 or Sunday, May 4 to get 10%-15% of the purchase price applied to African Library Project book drives. We have to beat $2000 nationwide to achieve the 15% level. I bet we can do that, can’t we?

So, if any of you book lovers are planning to pick up a gift (maybe for Mothers Day?) or something for your personal reading pleasure, head over to Barnes & Noble the May 3-4 weekend and help us build another library or two in sub-Saharan Africa.

What happens when an inspiring book, an inspiring reading teacher and the 1400 students of River Trail Middle School come together? They set records.

Mary Peterson, a 6th grade reading teacher at the middle school in John’s Creek, Georgia read Jim Stovall’s The Ultimate Gift, and was touched by the story of a man who needed to complete a string of twelve assignments in order to attain his grandfather’s will. Each of the twelve assignments came in the form of a gift, such as the gift of love, the gift of work, and most importantly, the gift of giving and learning, signified by the importance of used books in a South American library. There, like in the African villages and communities to which we bring libraries, these used library books are seen as a treasure.

Moved by the value of books to those who could not afford them, Mrs. Peterson searched online for a way to contribute. She stumbled upon the African Library Project, and helped motivate classes, and eventually an entire school, into action.

From December through February, River Trail organized a book sale and candy cane sale, among other collection and fundraising efforts. Flyers, posters and a banner accompanied morning announcements and a showing of the ALP website video. Students were motivated to collect 2,990 books when Jackie Andrews, a local resident, generously donated a storage facility full of used book. River Trail faculty arranged time for the entire school to sort and pack the 5,000 warehouse books, then added their own book drive collection, to set a new ALP record of 7,990 books, a mark we hope they break next year during their follow-up book drive!

After being so inspired, and seeing the impact her enthusiasm had on the entire school, Mrs. Peterson and the River Trail Reading Department arranged a simultaneous reading. In January, students read The Ultimate Gift to help learn about “the gift of giving, the gift of friends, the gift of problems, and the gift of learning, which shows how literacy is so important in Africa.”

Thank you, Mrs. Peterson! And all of the students at River Trail. Those 7,990 books are bringing libraries to eight primary schools in Botswana, and sharing the gift of reading.

Where can you find 35 libraries packed in a box? In our first container headed to Lesotho! Soon chugging along in a freighter to the mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, the container will carry more than 34,000 books packed in 457 boxes. The books will be used in preschools, primary schools, secondary schools, community libraries, and even a small jail library in Lesotho. 
 
We wanted to share a few of the highlights from the tremendous efforts that have taken place from Vermont to California to fill this container with beautiful books. Girl Scouts,  schools, companies, senior citizens, churches, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, a Leos Club and the families of Peace Corps Volunteers have all led book drives to fill this container, having each partnered with one or more individual library projects in Lesotho.

La Honda Elementary School of La Honda, California joined efforts with Inkspell Books located in Half Moon Bay, California, to send 1284 books to Kholo-Ntso Primary School where PCV Phoebe Harward will help the school organize them into a library. 
 
Mountain View High School’s Leo’s Club in Mountain View, CA ran a dizzyingly fast book drive to start a library at Tsoana-Mantata Secondary School. Combining 100 strategically placed grocery bags and a presentation to the entire faculty, the Leos collected 1182 appropriate books in just one week!

On the other side of the country, 12 year old Bar Mitzvah Scott Braverman collected books in Medfield, Massachusetts to create a community library for Semonkong, Lesotho. Scott’s uncle, Robbie Prime is a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) posted to Semonkong. Scott was so successful, he also was able to send books to Peace Corps Volunteer Mike Wong to help organize a library at Peka Primary School.

In St. Alban’s, Vermont, when Staples heard about the efforts of their local schools, Georgia Elementary and Middle School, to help start libraries in Africa, they generously donated over $3,000 in school supplies. The amazing Bettina Laidley, mother of Peace Corp Volunteer Belinda Laidley-Colias, spearheaded an effort to fundraise and purchase the necessary supplies to set up 30 Peace Corp Volunteer libraries. Meanwhile Georgia Elementary and Middle Schools, alma mater of PCV Belinda Laidley-Colias, collected books to start libraries at Mohale High School and Sebapala Community Library.

And finally, last but not least, California Middle School in California, Missouri, tied our African Library Project record by starting 5 libraries with a super-successful book drive. Teacher Jackie Hodson led the way changing the lives forever of the students of Mekaling Primary, St. Theresa Secondary, Katse High School, the citizens of Teyateyteng and the inmates at the Berea Jail! 
 
What does it take to fill a container full of books? Grassroots efforts from around the U.S. who are willing to put in the elbow grease to make it happen. Thank you for your incredible efforts.

Thanks to a grant from the Los Altos United Methodist Church in Los Altos, California for $3000, the African Library Project is able to provide HIV/AIDS readers to thrity of our libraries in Lesotho. Developed by South African Aids education workers, each 24 book set features fiction and non-fiction books set in Southern Africa at reading levels appropriate for African children. The books are beautiful, colorful and completely engaging to young readers.

Not only are these readers perfect for children dealing with the effects of HIV and AIDS in their daily lives, but they will be sent to a country with the 3rd highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world. Located in the imporverished lands of sub-Saharan Africa, Lesotho has been hit particularly hard by the AIDS epidemic, with 28.9% of the population living with HIV/AIDS. Such a massive percentage of the population being affected by the virus has been a major contributor to Lesotho having one of the lowest life expectancies in the world, a number that hauntingly stands at 40 years of age.

Our libraries are the perfect vehicle to reach thousands of Basotho children, teaching them how the HIV virus is spread and demystifying many commonly held beliefs that have led to the rapid spread of the disease and heartbreaking banishment of those who have the disease. Thus, the incorporation of this set of readers will not only help improve literacy, but will also save lives and heal families and friendships.

We’re also grateful to Heinemann Publishers for their generous discount in providing these readers to our libraries. For more information about these JAWS (Junior Africa Writers) readers, visit www.aidsteaching.com.

Lincoln Elementary School in Troy, MO knows how to party. And celebrate they should! Under third grade teacher Stacey Geisendorfer’s able leadership, the school collected and sorted over 5,000 books, enough books to start four primary school libraries in Botswana and one in Lesotho.

Lincoln’s principal, Dr. Kevin Connor, did his part to inspire the frenzy of book donations by agreeing to get a Mohawk haircut at an all school assembly if his school reached their ambitious goal of collecting 4,000 books. The school rallied, collected over 5,000 shippable books and now their principal will be needing a hat this winter! Dr. Conner’s mother and some lucky students buzzed the sides of his head while the local television station caught the action.

Watch a YouTube video of the slideshow Lincoln showed during their haircutting celebration to feel their frenzy. Talented third grade teacher/singer/composer James Bertels performs and composed the catchy tune, “Books For Botswana”.

The students and teachers lives at Gathwane, Morelelo, Pitsane Photlokwe, Tshwaaneng Primary Schools in Botswana and Linotsing Primary School in Lesotho will be forever changed because of the efforts of the families of Troy, MO. Last year Troy’s Wm. Cappel Elementary started three libraries in Africa bringing this little community’s total count to eight!

Girl Scout Troop 1997 of Moraga, CA mailing bags in May 2007

In May, USPS eliminated the inexpensive method of shipping we had been using to get our books to Africa - surface Mbags.

Even though we’ve changed to container shipping, many people mailing their books to developing countries around the world can no longer afford to send them.

Click here to hear our Founder, Chris Bradshaw, being interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered about the Mbag issue.

In August 2007 our family traveled to southern Africa to visit our African partners and to visit some of the libraries that we have worked to create over the past 2 years. It was an exciting venture, our first trip to Africa in 3 years, when we first conceived the idea of sending gently used books to African communities and schools that desperately need reading material. Here are some highlights from the Botswana portion of my family’s trip. Lesotho will follow.

Our host in Botswana was Olga Tsimanyna, a Ministry of Education official who actively supports the training and development of teachers and schools in the South District of the country. She is our partner for establishing 100 primary school libraries over the next 18 months. This is an amazingly ambitious undertaking for a developing African country, but Botswana has shown huge dedication to educating its citizenry.

»Read the full report (pdf)

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Eureka! We have found a new, inexpensive way for book drive organizers to ship their books to African communities. As you may know, USPS eliminated surface mail deliveries to most countries as mid-May, 2007. We have looked high and low for another excellent way to deliver our book treasures safely, and now we have it!

The new solution is to use a combination of (a) USPS domestic Media Mail shipping and (b) international sea container shipping. Now, as a book drive organizer, you will ship your boxes of books from any local post via low-cost Media Mail to our container shipper’s U.S. warehouse. The shipping company will consolidate and store the boxes according to your country’s destination, then palletize, shrinkwrap, and load the books into a 20’ sea container. They will truck the container to a nearby port and load it onto a ship bound for South Africa, where the container will be transported by truck or rail to its final destination. Our African partners will clear customs, unload the container and begin to distribute your books to your specific African partner community. Each container will hold up to 25,000 books or 25 libraries!

Happily, the total dollar cost for delivering a library of about 1000 (mostly paperback) books will remain about $450. You will pay about $200 in Media Mail postage (more if you send hardback books) and send a check for $250 to the African Library Project to cover additional expenses. For more details, check our new book drive guidelines (see page 10). And for you veterans of books drives, here is more good news: Since the boxes are being shipped domestically, there are no customs forms or Mbag tags to fill out, and you don’t have to bag all your boxes at the Post Office.

We’ll continue our practice of matching each book drive with an individual library project in Africa, but now there will be less paperwork, more convenient shipping locations, and less of your time spent at the post office for about the same cost.

Please join us by adding your library of 1000+ books to our contribution to Africa!

Consider these real life stories:

• Kgotta Ame is a caring father who volunteers his time to serve on the PTA board of Botswana’s Kanye school district. Why? “I never learned to read in school. I totally regret that I wasted my time.” Kgotta’s daughter Thato is not wasting her time. Tops in her class, the hardworking, shy 11 year old aspires to become a doctor. This is a common goal in a country where one of every four people are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus.
• Leshonono, an 18 year old herdsman, likes to read. Leshonono is still attending the local primary school. His mother is pushing him to go to high school in a nearby town, but Leshonono argues that his ailing grandparents (and the family’s sheep) need his help.
• Matlali and her 15 year old sister live alone with their brother and brew beer for a living. It’s not an unusual story or occupation, except that all three are orphaned children who have lost their parents to Aids.

These are just three of the stories that veteran filmmaker Anne Evans and documentary photographer Lesley Louden captured in August 2007 when they traveled to Botswana and Lesotho to make an educational DVD about the impact of the African Library Project. Anne and Lesley were inspired to volunteer their time, equipment and skill to tell the African side of our story. Besides, these two women love a good adventure.

Their trip was challenging from the beginning. Within the first week, while having dinner, all of their state-of-the art equipment was stolen from their cabin at a game lodge near Kruger National Park in South Africa. Despite the efforts of a private investigator and local police, their possessions were not recovered. The incident just focused them on the need to get beyond this sad experience and to make a great video. Fortunately, the film project was salvaged because Lesley’s husband, John, bought all new equipment and Chris Bradshaw, who had not yet departed, was able to deliver it to them in Johannesburg just a few days later.

In Botswana, the team filmed in the South District at thirteen of our 100 Libraries for Botswana schools. In Lesotho, they filmed against the backdrop of the majestic Malealea Valley, where the African Library Project has established five school or community libraries to foster learning. Anne and Lesley visited four of the schools and followed individual students through their day to capture the rhythm of local life and the effect of our libraries on their lives. They even got footage of our “donkey library” (which we learned is now delivered by a hearty villager with a backpack, although they still call it a donkey library!)

Now Anne and Lesley seek to raise $12K to cover some of their production costs. Then the long, intensive and artistic process of editing and shaping the photos and video footage comes. Their 10-12 minute DVD will be available for use by organizations doing book drives to help educate Americans about Africa. We also look forward to putting some of their work in short clips on our website, but this will take awhile. We are so grateful to Anne and Lesley for jumping into the project and for making friends for the African Library Project wherever they went. And we can’t wait to see the DVD

By Carolyn Gannon, 

Equal to the excitement of reaching Uhuru — the summit of Kilimanjaro — on July 30th, was hearing the one thing that our Tanzanian guide, David Olotu, wanted the most from the America.  Books!  David loves to read, and books are not as available in Moshi, Tanzania, as they are here in the U.S.

As a Board Member for the African Library Project, I have decided to dedicate my recent Kilimanjaro climb to ALP and have raised over $3,700 in donations in the process.  These donations will go toward supporting literacy and the love of reading by creating and improving small libraries in Africa.  

My seven-day trek with friends up the Machame Route on Kilimanjaro was beautiful and rigorous and gave lots of opportunity for discussions with the Tanzanian crew who supported the climb.  It was very clear how literacy and education in general expands the horizons and interconnects the world.  Our guide, David, exemplified the benefits of reading and was brimming with pride in Tanzania with ideas and optimism about his future.  Although he has never traveled beyond the borders of his country, he was conversant  and interested in topics of a vast nature — mostly learned through books.  And, he wants to read much more.  Feeling his excitement toward books is wonderfully motivating to stretch the efforts of the African Library Project to more and more regions of Africa where books are a rare commodity.

Denison University’s award winning magazine featured an excellent article (pdf format) about the African Library Project.

What do Xilinx Inc., Paycycle, Kepler’s Book Store, Technology Credit Union, and Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw have in common? All five companies are working to improve African literacy through the African Library Project. Whether collecting donations, supplying shipping funds, or running their own book drives, these sponsors’ efforts are a wonderful new addition to our project.

This spring, Xilinx Inc., an international high-tech company based in San Jose, became the first company to partner with ALP. Xilinx Inc. partnered with three local schools and Girl Scout Isabelle Nguyen to collect 5515 books, enough to establish 5 libraries in Botswana. Not only did Xilinx Inc. contribute substantial shipping costs, as well as books from its own book drive, but it has expanded our horizons in paving the way for our partnership with future corporate sponsors.

Kepler’s Book Store in Menlo Park, CA is currently running our first book store book drive, and it’s open to the public. Donors can bring in their gently used children’s books and/or purchase new books from Kepler’s special selection of books, all which will be donated to Kebonyekgotla Primary School in Botswana. Also, when a customer for any book mentions the African Library Project at the cash register, Kepler’s will donate 10% of the purchase to pay for the shipping costs of their books.

PayCycle Inc., an online payroll company for small businesses, based in Palo Alto, California, is just completing a book drive run within their company. Initiated by Kathleen Echeverria, PayCycle’s Organizational Effectiveness Manager, PayCycle’s books will be life changing for the children of Pitsonyane Primary School in Botswana.

Last week, Techonology Credit Union organized a book drive, collecting books at all of their nine Bay Area locations. Their goal is to collect 1000 books to establish a library at Logaba Primary School in Botswana, one of the 100 Libraries for Botswana.

And finally, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, New York City’s largest law firm is also running a book drive this summer in partnership with the African Library Project. Organized by Emory University law intern Allanna Chang, their books will be shipped to start a library at the Ha Khabo Community Library in Lesotho. Ha Khabo’s library will be located in the local high school and will also serve the two local primary schools in the community.

Together, we are making a difference!

By Chris Bradshaw

On July 31st, my husband, Steve, and children, Ben (17) and Mariah (13), and I will be taking the 24 hour flight to Africa again. I am very excited! Traveling with us will be documentary filmmaker Anne Evans and photo journalist Lesley Louden. These two remarkable women are donating their time, talent, and equipment (and paying their own way!) to tell our story. We aim to visit as many of our libraries as possible, meet our African partners in person, explore new partnerships, and attend the International Federation of Library Associations conference in Durban, South Africa. My family is also looking forward to some pure play time, especially in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, one of the premier game viewing areas in Africa.

As for me, I can’t wait to see our libraries and meet the people using them. I’ll finally get to turn the many virtual relationships I have made over the last couple of years into flesh and blood relationships, my favorite kind! Our partners in Botswana and Lesotho have kindly set up schedules for us so we will be able to make efficient use of our time.

In addition to meeting with our partners at Peace Corps Botswana and Peace Corps Lesotho, we’ll be meeting with the Ministry of Education officials in both Botswana and Lesotho. In Botswana, we will meet with the director of the University of Botswana’s Library Science School. Her team will be teaching new skills in basic library management to 100+ School District “teacher-librarians.” We also plan to check out some native language books published in Gaborone. We dream of adding small native language collections to each of our libraries. In Lesotho, we’ll join villagers of Leribe to celebrate the opening of the new Leribe Community Library made possible with the donation of our books! We’re also meeting with the National Library Association of Lesotho to explore collaboration.

Don’t worry, we’ll be taking photos everywhere and posting them for you to see! My kids are forming an interview/writing team to collect stories wherever they go.

Lisa Crate is one of those people who makes the African Library Project successful. Her exceptional drive, organizational skills and can-do attitude provided the leadership to inspire Carl Goetz Middle School in Jackson, New Jersey to ship 5,070 books to Botswana, starting 5 new primary school libraries, a new ALP record. As the school librarian at Goetz, Lisa knows how important access to books is for students to learn.

Like most of our super successful book drives, Lisa’s success was based on her ability to get lots of people involved. Using the ALP logo, Lisa designed and distributed flyers for the teachers, parents, and students that explained why Africa needs books and what Goetz planned to do about it. She also included criteria from the ALP website for the types of books needed. Then she updated the student body on the progress of the book drive on Goetz Live. The Character Education Committee helped collect the books and many of Goetz’s classes helped to sort them. Goetz even reached out to local businesses asking for book and monetary donations. When they reached 2,000 books, Lisa said, “we are doing great, but I think we can do even better!”

To take care of shipping costs, Goetz raised over $1,600 in some creative ways. The Drama Club did a traveling show, Aladdin, throughout the district. At each performance, the students were asked to bring used books to donate as their price of admission. In addition, a Mother’s Day plant sale to collect additional funds was so successful, the excess was used to buy books to add to the collection.

Finally, not only did Goetz do an amazing job collecting books, the Goetz students learned a lot about Africa in the process. Lisa offered lesson plans to those who were interested in language arts and literature, social studies, and geography and cross-cultural understanding. An educational win for students on both sides of the Atlantic!

Lisa will be the recipient of the Promising Practices Award presented by the Character Education Partnership (CEP), a national organization for character education. Lisa will be presenting her work with the African Library Project in October in Arlington, Virginia. Her work will also be showcased nationally through CEP publications to be shared with other schools throughout the country.

Congratulations to Goetz and Lisa for their incredible accomplishments!

On June 9th, organizers of three separate book drives gathered at ALP founder’s Chris Bradshaw’s house to share their stories of success with family members, ALP Board Members, and ALP Volunteers. This group included Arundel Elementary 4th graders Hannah Blumen-Green, Madison Norman, Amanda Breslauer, and 2 parts of the Xilinx Five, Union Middle School 8th grader Austen Blease and Girl Scout Silver Award Candidate 9th grader Isabelle Nguyen. Together, they spoke about the motives and unique methods they used in their book drives.

Each student’s presentation powerfully expressed what motivated them to organize a book drive for students living on the other side of the planet. Madison expressed that “we chose ALP because we love books and couldn’t imagine kids in Africa living without them.” Austen confirmed that we should realize “how fortunate we are as Americans, and we have the privilege to help.” Isabelle also was “really excited because [she] wanted to help Africa but didn’t have a way until [she] learned about the African Library Project.”

Want to hear the secrets for collecting books and money? The 4th grade trio of Hannah, Madison, and Amanda advertised their book drive during a school book fair, and also strategically placed 2 cans in their school office and library to collect money. Austen turned his book drive into a school-wide competition where each home room competed to collect the most books, with the winner receiving an ice cream party. And Isabelle devised a brochure to advertise her book drive, as well as went from home-to-home cleaning out the bookshelves of friends.

Not only did these young activists inform and inspire the ALP Board, they donated the excess shipping money donations! Hannah, Madison and Amanda donated a check of $550 to ALP, Austen donated $918, and Isabelle is using her leftover shipping money to buy laminated world wall maps to be hand delivered to libraries this summer by Chris and her family.

What a special treat for the Board to hear directly from some of our incredible book drive organizers. Together, one library at a time, we can have a powerful impact on African literacy.

In the largest collaborative effort to date for an ALP book drive, Xilinx Inc. of San Jose, California joined three local schools, and Girl Scout Isabelle Nguyen, to collect an ALP record 5515 books. This astounding effort will establish 5 primary school lending libraries in Botswana as part of our 100 Libraries for Botswana project.

Xilinx is our first corporate sponsor and the story of how this partnership snowballed is inspiring. 8th grader Austen Blease approached Xilinx, his dad’s employer, to ask if they would be willing to pay for the shipping of the books he was collecting at his middle school for the African Library Project. Xilinx responded enthusiastically. Next, Austen’s brother, Adam, decided to initiate an African Library Project book drive at his high school. Again, Xilinx was pleased to help with the shipping costs. The local elementary school heard about the project and decided to organize its own book drive. Meanwhile, the daughter of Xilinx employee Thuy Do, Isabelle Nguyen, was earning her Girl Scout Silver Award by doing a book drive. Not only did Xilinx pay to ship all these book drives, they organized their own internal book drive to help start a fifth library! Xilinx’s shipping department supplied all the boxes, picked up the books and palletized them, then took them to the post office to ship. What a fantastic community collaboration of resources!

Here are the Xilinx Five and their African partners.

1. Union Middle School - Newlook Primary School in Lobatse, Botswana
2. Leigh High School - Magoriapitse Primary School in Magoriapitse, Botswana
3. Oster Elementary School - Matloklakgang Primary School in Kanye, Botswana
4. Girl Scout Isabelle Nguyen - Mahotshwane Primary School in Mahotswane, Botswana
5. Xilinx Inc. - Motsateng Primary School in Kanye, Botswana

This story would not be complete without mentioning the amazing organizational dynamo, Tina Blease, who is Austen and Adam’s mom. Tina was the glue that put it all together with a big smile constantly on her face.

Thank you so much to Patty Nation at Xilinx, the schools, families, students and volunteers, as well as Xilinx Inc. for you amazing contributions and efforts in promoting literacy in Africa. 2276 students and 86 teachers in Botswana and all the lives that they will touch during their lifetimes will benefit from you gift of books.

This July, African Library Project Board Member Carolyn Gannon will be heading to Tanzania to climb Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Carolyn will be combining her amazing ascents with a fundraiser to raise awareness and money for ALP. Those interested in contributing to ALP can donate 1 cent for every foot Carolyn climbs on her way to the top of Kilimanjaro (19,340 ft), or any other amount to support Carolyn’s cause. Already, friends of Carolyn have donated $2058.40 to help support books to libraries in Africa.

If you would like to support Carolyn’s adventure and help build libraries at the same time, you can click on the link on the main page How To Help. If you make a donation, please indicate “African Library Project — Carolyn’s Kilimanjaro Climb” in the on-line donation form in the section: “Details about your contribution.”

Pictures and details of Carolyn’s adventure will be posted after the trip. Go Carolyn!

On Monday May 14th, 2007, USPS eliminated international economy surface MBag shipments ($1.05/pound). The next least expensive option at USPS are economy air Mbags at $4.35/pound. The packing procedures are exactly the same for air Mbags as they were for surface. The post office will just stamp your tags Air. We continue to look for a less expensive shipping option and will post here when we are successful.

Meanwhile, thank you! thank you! thank you! to all of our bookdrives in the United States and Canada who worked extra hard to ship their books before the rate change. A number of book drives almost magically managed to collect, sort, pack and ship their 1000 books during the past two weeks including Chikako Takeuchi’s first grade class at Hammer Montessori in San Jose, CA. One of Chikako’s students went door to door collecting their shipping costs. First grade!

Since January, our various schools, Girl Scouts, families and organizations have shipped enough books to fill 55 libraries! We have a number of book drives still underway, bravely planning to ship at the new rates. Thank you to all those who have made this school year’s book drives a smashing success. We have supplied books to over 35,000 students and nearly 1000 teachers!

Photo caption: Walter Hays Elementary School (Palo Alto, CA) parent volunteers at the Willow Glen Post Office in San Jose, CA shipping Polokwe, Mokgadi, and Bakgatla Primary Schools in Botswana over 3000 books. The same post office shipped at least 11 libraries this week to Botswana!

On May 14th, the United States Postal Service will eliminate international economy surface M Bag shipments. The USPS has issued a press release about this shipping change.

Surface M Bags are the slow, inexpensive ($1.05/pound) shipping method we have been using for shipping our books. The next least expensive method of shipping using USPS is air Mbags at $4.35/pound.

The African Library Project is extremely concerned about this increase in costs to our US book drive partners. We are working to find a less expensive shipping option for our U.S. partners. Check back here for updates.

Congratulations to African Library Project Board Member Richard Hellyer! Richard was honored by the Volunteer Center of San Francisco for his outstanding contributions to ALP. Richard designed and maintains our website as well as our database. He also had a major hand in producing our first newsletter. Thank you, Richard. Your generous donation of skills and talent are making a difference in the world!

Need inspiration? In less than a month, three 4th grade girls from Arundel Elementary School in San Carlos, California, have collected over 4000 books and $1800 in shipping costs to start four Primary School libraries in Botswana. The girls, Amanda Breslauer, Hannah Blumen-Green, and Madison Norman, not only became the youngest group of students to partner with ALP, but the 4000+ books they collected also breaks the record for the most books collected in a single book drive.

And what’s more, the girls organized it all by themselves. The girls heard about the African Library Project through a family friend, Portola Valley School Superintindent Anne Campbell. The girls, who all love to read, visited the ALP website, and immediately connected with the idea of partnering with ALP. As Amanda puts it, “when we found out a lot of people don’t really have books, the idea sounded great.”

By placing donation cans in the school office and library, advertising ALP at a Book Fair, and placing posters around the school, the girls were able to go far beyond their original collection expectations. As Amanda humbly states, “our original goal was 1000 books and $400, so we are really happy about how much we got.”

The 4000+ books collected by the girls will be shipped to the Maitlamo, Ipeleng, Digawana and Maranyane Primary Schools in Botswana helping 2,760 students and 92 teachers!

Although most of our book drives are carried out by schools, organizations, or clubs, we are always open to ingenious methods of collection. We loved the idea the McDermott Family had to start a library in Africa as their holiday gift to each other instead of giving Christmas gifts. Grandmother Ann Vosti offered her garage to store the books in Palo Alto. Ann’s four children and grandchildren, led by daughter LeeAnne, collected books at the schools, churches, clubs and sports teams they are involved in. And family members chipped in to pay shipping costs. The McDermott Family has shipped over 3,000 books, enough to fill 3 libraries!

The McDermott family’s books will start libraries at the Mahobong Secondary School (Lesotho), the Leribe Community Center in (Lesotho), and the New Xade Community Center (Botswana). The McDermott family’s achievement is a testament to the power of the family and all the different communities a family can touch.

Kepler’s Bookstore in Menlo Park, CA is sponsoring a book drive and fundraising effort to start an African Library Project library. Kepler’s will kick off the book drive on Friday, April 27th, at 7:30p.m. during an author showcase event featuring Masha Hamilton. Masha will discuss her newly released novel, The Camel Bookmobile, and her experience of traveling with the real camel bookmobile in Kenya. Masha’s book mentions the African Library Project.

On April 27th, please bring your donation of gently used children’s fiction, children’s non-fiction, and children’s reference books to the Kepler’s collection box. A special collection of children’s books selected for African libraries will also be available for purchase. Further, if you purchase anything at Kepler’s during the event, and if you mention ALP at the register, Kepler’s will donate 15% of your purchase price to the African Library Project. Your book donations and 15% of your purchases will help Kepler’s to start a library in Africa.

After April 27th, you can still help. Kepler’s will continue to collect books for ALP until they have 1000 books to ship. Also, anytime you shop at Kepler’s or keplers.com, just mention the African Library Project, and Kepler’s will donate 10% of your purchase price to the ALP shipping fund.

Michigan State University’s Books for Africa Club has outdone itself. Last week, the student-run club conducted a book drive with several public high schools around the Lansing area, netting an astounding 3000 children’s books. Primary school libraries in the South District of Botswana look forward to receiving the books as part of our “100 Libraries for Botswana” project.

The Books for Africa Club has become one of the African Library Project’s most active contributors. Before the Lansing book drive, the club’s donations contributed to establishing six school libraries in Tlokweng, Botswana.

Special thanks to Laura Soluguren Sanchez, founder of the Michigan State division of Books for Africa.

A big thank-you to the various clubs, schools, and organizations without which we would not exist. These groups have collected and shipped over 27,000 books to libraries in Africa. It is these groups’ efforts that fuel our literacy efforts.

In this academic year, six schools, two organizations, and two clubs have joined the African Library Project by signing on, beginning, or completing book drives:

• Walter Hays Elementary School (Palo Alto, California)
• Corte Madera School (Portola Valley, California)
• Cate School (Santa Barbara, California)
• Torrey Pines High School (San Diego, California)
• William R. Cappel Elementary School (Moscow Mills, Missouri)
• Mulberry School (Los Gatos, California)
• Michigan State University’s Books for Africa Club
• South Oakland YMCA (Detroit, Michigan)
• Monterey Institute of International Studies RPCV Club
• McDermott Family (Northern California)

We are proud to announce that we have completed the book shipments, and 6600 books are on their way to these six school libraries and the Community Library that will soon serve the village of 27,000.

Last January, Edwin Qobose requested our help in starting a library in Botswana. Edwin, a senior librarian at the University of Botswana, and his committee of professional librarians, are partnering with us to establish seven libraries in the semi-urban village of Tlokweng, near the capital of Gaborone. A year later, the books have been sent, and Edwin’s dream is on the way to becoming a reality.

We thank our book donors, book drive coordinators and the librarians at the University of Botswana for working together to make these libraries possible.

More information about Edwin and the Tlokweng project is available in our online newsletter.

Over 3,200 books in 76 boxes were sent to Botswana by the children and staff of William R. Cappel Elementary school, Mosco Mills, Missouri. This outstanding achievement ranks as the largest shipment made so far by any single organization.

Many thanks to Julia Knocke, third grade teacher!

To learn more about this, you can view the local TV coverage or the school’s press release

We are proud to have just released our newsletter for this year. You can read it online here, or if you would like a printed version please email us with your postal address
(email : info@africanlibraryproject.org)

The African Library Project has been featured in the October 18th edition of the weekly news magazine, The Almanac, which serves Portola Valley, Atherton, Woodside and Menlo Park. The article, which details the mission and efforts of the ALP and its founder Chris Bradshaw, can be found at  The Almanac’s website.

The African Library Project, through the aid of a team of San Jose State graduate students, has completed its first survey of 36 African libraries established by the ALP. As the sustainability of libraries established by the ALP is a major goal of our organization, this survey is an essential component for monitoring the functionality, successes, failures, and developments of our libraries.
… Read the complete article »

The African Library Project has entered into a partnership with the South District of Botswana to establish 100 new libraries in primary schools. This monumental announcement, the largest undertaking of the African Library Project to date, will make the South District of Botswana the benchmark of future ALP projects in Africa. … Read the complete article »

Chris Bradshaw, founder of the African Library Project, has been selected as one of 10 local recipients to receive the Jefferson Award for community service. The Award, established in 1972, honors individuals for their contributions to the community and public service. To read the San Francisco Chronicle article about Chris and the award, or to see the CBS news video excerpt, click at the CBS website, and at SF Gate’s site