Posted by David Murphy, President and CEO

[ed: The following letter is from Pat Plonski of Books for Africa to David Murphy, CEO of Better World Books, it talks about the exciting steps that BFA and BWB are taking to make more impact and make sure the money that you help raise is going to the right places!]

Hello David--

Just wanted to show you these latest numbers regarding the incredible impact being made by the Better World Books Fund of Books for Africa in just the last two and one half months. Including the container that we just sent yesterday to Ghana, the Better World Books Fund has leveraged the delivery of 13 containers of books (400,000 books) to eight countries valued at $2.3 million. We have shipped to Kenya, Tanzania, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Algeria, and Ghana. Not bad for 12 weeks! The establishment of the Better World Books Fund has frankly transformed our shipping operation by allowing Books for Africa to leverage donations from individuals who cannot afford to pay for a full container, and by allowing us to ship to countries never before served by BFA. Book shipments at Books for Africa are up dramatically this fiscal year, and are in fact on a track to increase by at least 50% over last year.

So that's the latest. Shipments are way up in large part to the Better World Books Fund. About half of our shipments over the past 12 weeks have been in collaboration with Better World Books. Of course, those regular payments designated for unrestricted funding (which we receive from you on a monthly basis) to underwrite our ongoing operations are also coming in very handy.

Thanks much for all you and the Better World Books team is doing. We expect to reach our goal of shipping 20 million books to Africa next year and our collaboration with BWB has been a key element in our success.

--Pat

Patrick Plonski
Executive Director
Books for Africa

Help End the Book Famine in Africa! View the BFA Story

Posted by Aaron King, Director of Campus Division


I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the Santa Rosa School on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation in the Sonoran Desert.I spent my first day there doing landscaping around their dormitory, where many of the kids stay who come from afar. It was a hot, grueling day in the sun but definitely worth every minute of it when I saw the smiling children the rest of the week.

I was thoroughly impressed with the FACE program; it's an innovative concept, bringing children and their guardians to the school together.  Parents and Grandparents could work on projects in one classroom, ultimately working towards getting their GED, while the children would work and play in another classroom.  All throughout the day, they had prearranged times for the children and their guardians to come together and the kids could immediately show what they were learning.  This approach that promotes education and family togetherness at the same time seems destined for success, making it enjoyable for all to come to the school daily.

Posted by: Christian Blue, Account Representative

September 8th was the 42nd celebration of International Literacy Day. There are now close to 4 billion literate people in the world and Better World Books applauds those achievements.  There is still much to be done to promote literacy and while we strive to every day, September 8th gave us a special opportunity to try to do more.



The 2007 theme was “Literacy, key to good health and well-being”.  In conjunction, the Atlanta office sent two representatives to visit one of the new Wellness Information Zones developed in partnership by Libraries for the Future and The Humana Foundation.  These physical stations located within select libraries are aimed at reducing the number of people who have difficulty obtaining, understanding and acting on basic health information.  Through the Wellness Information Zones and www.wellzone.org people will have access to reliable health information that they can use to make positive decisions about their health.  

In addition to the continuing education of our staff, Better World Books had organized a number of initiatives to commemorate the day.  From offering tips to promote literacy and discounts on purchases at www.BetterWorld.com, Better World Books hopes to bring necessary awareness to the global pandemic that is illiteracy.  As an added measure, the Library Division of Better World Books distributed a press release to targeted cities.

I encourage all of our readers, staff and supporters to think about the impact that literacy has on your own lives.  Thank those who have contributed to this gift and yourself for sharpening this tool. 

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.” –Mark Twain

Posted by: Geoff Schwarten, BetterWorld.com staff

Already BetterWorld.com material!

I’d like to weigh in briefly on the BWB trip to Santa Rosa School on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation in the Sonoran Desert. As stated in some of the previous blog posts, The National Center for Family literacy organized this trip, and we were checking out one of their programs called FACE that stands for Family and Child Education.

I could tell you a lot of good information about FACE and the National Center for Family Literacy, or about this incredible woman Sister Val, but I think that’s been pretty well covered. I’d just like to touch briefly on what the trip meant for me…

This guy was pumped about reading!

The highlight for me was spending time in the first grade classroom and on the basketball court at recess. The kids on the reservation were so excited about learning, having fun and preserving their heritage. The Santa Rosa school has a big challenge that they are facing – kids are dropping out and joining gangs at a young age – however their staff puts forth an amazing effort to provide an excellent place for learning. One teacher, Coach, was the school’s IT guy, gym teacher, athletic coach taking them to games against reservation schools hundreds of miles a way. You could hear kids enthusiasm in shouting “Coach!” just as they passed him in the hall. I am grateful for people like Coach and Sister Val.

I think that it is pretty awesome that an organization like Better World Books would undertake offering employees a program/benefit that would subsidize sending them to visit the literacy programs that we are all working so hard to support. It makes perfect sense, get employees together to visit a location and get energized about our mission. As an added benefit, employees get to know each other better and become a stronger team.

Thank you to Santa Rosa School! Although technically we were the volunteers, I think that BWB employees got the most out of being there and learning about the school, FACE, and Tohono O’odham culture.

And Coach – let me know if you need some help teaching basketball to the kids…

Geoff

Better World Books now has a dedicated Antiquarian, Rare, and Collectable Books (ARC) department at its Mishawaka, Indiana, Distribution Centre.

Posted by Abby Rae LaCombe, Rocky Mountain Regional Director

What an excellent trip! I’d never been to the Southwest before; I’d never seen any of the American deserts, or cacti growing like oak trees, or rattlesnakes (I still haven’t seen a rattlesnake) and it was all beautiful. Arizona is neat!

When we arrived at Santa Rosa Boarding School Tuesday morning, none of us had much of an idea of the sort of work we’d be doing. With students arriving the following day, we were just in time for the hustle and bustle of classroom set-up and campus preparation! We gathered in Sister Val’s room to delegate tasks and although I’m certainly not computer savvy, I somehow volunteered to set up classroom computers. Geoff and I started in Mrs. Roger’s room with a jumble of cords and computer parts and set to it. It wasn’t terribly long before another teacher stepped in to see if we could do hers as well! Only months earlier it had taken me the same amount of time to assemble my single desktop that it took us to assemble ten that day.

The downside of assembling computers is you have to play inside, and who wants that when outside looms an amazing desert sun and the possibility of critter sightings? With that in mind, Tuesday night I decided that each possible moment on Wednesday would be spent outside.  So naturally on Wednesday morning when Sister Val asked what we wanted to do and “play outside!” was my eager response.

Damara and I set to work picking up the early childhood playground and were disappointed to see graffiti painted on the equipment. We went to the office to ask if they had anything to clean it with and they sent us back out with an aerosol can of paint thinner and disposable sheets that are stored and removed like diaper wipes, but are covered with paint thinner -- AMAZING.

Once we set to it we saw little progress, which just fueled our need to remove it entirely. We scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. Eventually, Sarah Lynne came out to join us and we scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed. After lunch Damara and I returned for more hours of scrubbing. Hot, sweaty, tired, and SICK of scrubbing Damara sighed, “I wonder what would happen if I threw some of my water on it.” *Splash.* “OMIGOODNESS!!” we yelped as the graffiti dripped away. We were able to clear everything we’d been scrubbing away at for hours in only a half-hour! Knowing the trick, I wandered through the rest of the playground to find all those sneaky places we wrote bad words when we were kids.

Thank you, Santa Rosa Boarding School and NCFL for this great opportunity. We had a wonderful time!

Posted by David Murphy, President and CEO

Martha Schouten, an English Language Fellow teacher at the University of Oran in Algeria, contacted Books For Africa (BFA), to see if BFA could help replenish their library with English language books after many years of neglect.   Currently, the University’s books in English are dated in the 1980’s or before. 

During the 1990’s Algeria experienced civil war and domestic terror.  Since 1999 little has changed - militant splinter groups continue their campaign against the government, and the army continues its own campaign against the rebels, amid accusations of corruption and brutality.  This has undeniably created an atmosphere of insecurity in the general population.   

As over half of Algeria’s population are young people, there are many issues for Algerian students.  These concern future job opportunities, information available (or unavailable) to them, and the extreme feeling of uncertainty in almost all domains of their lives.  In spite of this, Martha’s students are so very eager to know as much as possible about the outside world, and to travel and study in foreign countries.

To aid the beneficiaries of BFA donations, Better World Books has created a special Fund for Books For Africa.  This Fund is designed to pay for the shipping costs of these containers of books.   The Fund paid $9,000 in shipping costs for this one container.

 

The 40-foot container of books will be heading out today to the University.  It is the first shipment that Books For Africa has sent to Algeria!  The demand for university books in Africa remains enormous.

Posted by David Murphy, President and CEO

The health of the people of Somaliland is among the worst in Africa. This statement is supported by the fact that even before the civil war and the separation of the two Somali states, Somalia had one of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world. While recent valid data is not available, the mortality rates after the destruction that has taken place in country is frightening to consider.

One out of 8 babies dies before the age of 12 months Every year nearly 4,000 Somali women die in childbirth One out of 5 children dies before the age of five Life expectancy is only 48 years

In the Somaliland region of Somalia, an extraordinary woman named Edna Adan Ismail runs her own obstetric hospital and trains midwives, underscoring how women’s lives can be saved even in the most difficult environments.  The hospital site, once used as a mass killing field during the civil war for independence (1988-1990) under Siad Barre's reign, is now a haven for bringing new life into the world.  

Xavier Helgesen, co-founder of BWB, learned about this hospital in a New York Times article, and contacted the hospital after the announcement of the Better World Books Fund for Books For Africa, and a container of books was received in late July. 

The Better World Books Fund is designed to pay for the shipping costs of containers of books, donated through Books For Africa.   The Fund is important, because the shipping costs for this one container alone were over $5,000.

The donated books will be used for the hospital’s medical library for the Edna Adan Teaching Hospital.  While the library could not currently contain a whole container of books, any extra books with will be distributed to Universities in Somalia and governmental nursing facilities.

Posted by Jack Hanlon, Northeast Regional Director

 

I received this today from our partner, The National Center for Family Literacy, and wanted to share it with everyone.  NCFL is doing great work and this press release…..timed to coincide with the celebration of International Literacy Day (September 8^th)……is a great way to draw attention to the issue of illiteracy in our own country…...

David W. Murphy
President and CEO
Better World Books

Posted by: Jacob Fu, Sales Representative

As you have seen and read from my Better World Books colleagues, a few of us had the opportunity to visit the Santa Rosa School in Arizona.  I had the opportunity help teachers set up classrooms, set-up computers, inflate playground balls, and interact with the families of the FACE program.  It was amazing to see the impact that the teachers make on the children and more so, the dedication the teachers had for what they did is truly inspiring.  

David Murphy and I had the chance to help one of the teachers set up her classroom.  She had found out only a few days prior to our arrival that she would no longer be teaching 1st graders, but would actually have 5th grade students at the beginning of the school year.  As you can imagine, it is quite a daunting task to convert a 1st grade classroom to one appropriate for 5th graders in just a few days.  

      
David Murphy, CEO of BWB, adjusting desks.                     The classroom after the desks were adjusted.

At the start, David and I readjusted table heights for the new class.  With only a day until school started, we helped transform the classroom from piles of desks and stacked boxes to a functioning room.  But we definitely had the easy job.  It was now up to the teacher to prepare the curriculum and teach the kids the entire year.

The trip was definitely an unforgettable experience and helps me appreciate all that I have.  It also gives me some satisfaction that what we do here at Better World Books is at the very least able to help our organizations such as these.