What do you picture when you hear the word “library”?
Perhaps a large building, or a room lined with books? Libraries come in different forms and spaces, but many students do not have access to a library or to the valuable content a library can hold.
Libraries that provide access to reading material and resources hold the key to advancing literacy and nurturing growth in and out of the classroom.
The mission of the African Library Project is to change lives book by book, together with partners in Africa and North American volunteers to create, improve, and sustain libraries in African communities. African Library Project’s vision is to expand opportunities by creating spaces that nurture literacy. Libraries in Africa don’t always match what we picture when we hear the word, but they serve the same purpose and provide much needed opportunities to build literacy.
In the last 16 years, African Library Project has helped to create 3,425 libraries across 13 of Africa’s 24 Anglophone countries to date. That’s nearly 4 million books shipped to Africa! An accomplishment like this can only happen with the support and work of many people in North America and Africa.
Won’t you join the mission to continue to change lives and provide opportunities that nurture literacy?
3,425
Libraries within 13 Countries
3,559,660
books shipped
1,500+
Partnerships
Our Mission: The African Library Project changes lives book by book, together with partners in Africa and North American volunteers to create, improve, and sustain libraries in African communities
Our Vision: expand opportunities by creating spaces that nurture literacy.
Why Organize a Book Drive with the African Library Project?
• Too many African children grow up without books, while U.S. bookshelves and landfills overflow with books no longer read.
• In many of the communities we serve, young people have little to no access to reading materials beyond textbooks (when provided).
• We serve Anglophone countries where students are tested in English for standardized exams that are required for advancement. However, these students lack books to support their reading development.
• Reading fosters critical thinking skills and creativity.
• Teachers in many rural areas may teach reading, writing, math and English without a single book to use as a resource.
Our Approach
Our volunteers in the United States and Canada organize book drives by rallying their communities to collect gently used children’s books and raise funds for shipping. Thanks to our international network of partners, volunteers, and community supporters, these donated books are transformed into sustainable community-based libraries. Here’s how we do it!
1. Partner
We partner with local organizations in Africa to find and vet schools and communities in need of books.
2. Mobilize
We mobilize volunteers and match each U.S. or Canadian book drive to an approved African school or community.
3. Distribute
Working with our partners, we ship and distribute each library to the recipient school and provide support and training for sustainability.
Youth Leadership
Our book drives are great opportunities for young people to sharpen key organizational and leadership skills, while making a difference for others. Our Youth Ambassadors work within their local communities to spread the work of the African Library Project, advocate for global literacy, and mobilize and support their peers to get involved. Through this program, young leaders explore unique ways to make impact as global citizens.
Our Blog
BDO Spotlight: Grace Tulinsky
Grace Tulinsky was inspired to start her first book drive with African Library Project during the Summer of 2018 after she learned, through a research project, about the empowerment education can provide girls in Africa. Since then, she organized five book drives with...
Our Newest Partner in Uganda talks about why access is essential for students
enjuba is African Library Project’s most recent partner in Uganda. In Uganda, eight of every ten children of 10 years or under cannot read. enjuba is working to help increase the literacy rate in the country by bringing reading into Ugandan culture. One step they’re...
The First African Library Project Library
Chris Bradshaw has had a connection to Africa since she spent her junior year studying at Fourah Bay College, part of the University of Sierra Leone. She wanted to help the communities she visited, but wasn’t sure what to do at the time. It wasn’t until years later...
