Fall has hit full tilt here in Minnesota which made the trip to Breezy Point Resort in Pequot Lakes, MN for the Fall MinWiKota regional Phi Theta Kappa Conference that much more beautiful.

With 20 chapters from the region attending, I had a great audience, a number of whom had already participated in the great Spring semester drives. One of the all-star chapters, Century College in White Bear Lake, MN, worked with me to have their president, Nate Kruckeberg, talk about their fantastic Spring drive. To date, they’ve collected over 2,000 books!

I was presented with a beautiful Phi Theta Kappa pen after the presentation and got to speak with Brandi McNeil from Phi Theta Kappa Headquarters about the organization and our fantastic partnership. The presentation following mine was given by MinWiKota members on Operation: Green, showing Phi Theta Kappa’s continued great service work and ability to attack current issues like preserving the environment. One key part to the Operation: Green project is a planting of trees around the Minnesota-Wisconsin-Dakotas region; they even handed out saplings to everyone present (I’m going to plant mine in the yard of my first house). It reminded me of how well our organizations fit together: the environmental impact Better World Books has had by saving more than 5,000,000 pounds of paper from the landfills .

To cap off the day, MinWiKota members didn’t stop at signing up to run book drives with Better World Books this Fall: a challenge was made for a student to jump into nearby Pelican Lake for a $20 donation to be made to Books for Africa. The contributions topped $20 and soon enough, there was a soaking wet MinWiKota Phi Theta Kappa member (names are being withheld for the protection of one very cold, wet but dedicated member). It was great to learn more about Phi Theta Kappa and the work they’re doing with and without Better World Books!

Niko Tomlinson
Senior Director, Midwest

During Q3 of 2006, Better World books generated $13,459.59 for New Orleans Public Library through the online sale of donated books.  That brings the total amount donated to the Rebuild NOPL campaign to $19,183.67.

Since the beginning of the partnership, over 3,000 cartons have been delivered to our warehouse from around the country.   We look forward to raising even more money during the final quarter of 2006!

In addition to providing material and financial support to over 70 non-profit organizations that focus on literacy and education, Better World Books has donated over $475,000 to our campus partners, including student leaders, service clubs, and campus bookstores.

This is unrestricted funding that the recipient(s) can use however they wish, from offsetting membership dues, to paying for registration and transportation to regional and national conferences, to donating to a local charity. The possibilities are endless!

One bookstore in the Rocky Mountain Region has a novel approach to taking advantage of the funding generated from their campus book drives: Bookstore Scholarships! Between Fall 2005 and Spring 2006, Montana State University-Northern generated $350 through the collection of “no-value” college textbooks, and recently awarded two $187.50 scholarships.

The recipients - Conrad Flynn and Michelle Courchene - were selected from the pool of students who paid cash for their books this semester, and will be able to take advantage of their scholarships during the Spring semester book rush.

Jason Degele, manager of the MSU-N Bookstore, is thrilled that partnering with Better World Books benefits not only Room to Read, but also the MSU-N campus community. His hope is that even more students will take to buying their books directly from the bookstore so as to be considered for the next round of scholarships, which will be awarded in the Spring.

We at Better World Books hope more and more bookstores will take advantage of this unique opportunity to serve their students, and invite any managers who are interested to contact their Regional Director about how they can get involved.

I have recently had the great experience of attending both the Virginia and Middle States Phi Theta Kappa Regional Leadership Conferences, in Morgantown, WV and Dundalk, MD. I was thrilled with the enthusiasm and motivation that I saw in the Phi Theta Kappa chapter representatives that I met. I met dozens of friendly and outgoing students and faculty advisors that are really geared up for this year's upcoming book drives.

In addition to my excitement about how ready and willing the Phi Theta Kappa members are to support our efforts in raising funds to promote literacy, I was also very grateful for the open and friendly reception that I was given. My experience at these leadership conferences has been both fun and rewarding for me personally. In Morgantown I was included in talks and team building exercises and then invited to the James Madison football game by one of the chapter members. At the Middle States conference in Dundalk I had the pleasure of listening to Sister Claire, a professor from Boston University, give a lecture on the state of education in the United States, and her insightful thoughts on the need for a paradigm change in the American educational system. It was an awesome and inspiring lecture.

I have greatly enjoyed being able to personally get to know the Phi Theta Kappans in the Southern Mid-Atlantic Region. It has been a great experience for me, and also has produced some great relationships that are dedicated to supporting our mission of promoting literacy around the world.

Thank you Phi Theta Kappa!

Dear Computer Lab Supporters:

The computer lab has gotten off to a great start.  The building has been completed, powered and outfitted with ten laptops, a printer, and furniture.  Classes began on 31 July.  We have seven basic computer skills classes with eighteen students each that will run for nine weeks.  Students are currently covering formatting in Microsoft Word before moving on to Microsoft Excel.  Additionally, other FORGE projects have utilized the computer lab, such as the new Mwange Journal and the Women's Leadership and Empowerment Program.

In August, we held a community-wide contest to name the computer lab.  From the many entries, John and I chose pieces and formed the name Laboratoire Informatique Safari, in English - Computer Technology Lab: Journey.  With the help of another FORGE worker, we hired some community artists to help us design and paint an incredible mural on the inside wall with a  laptop whose keys turn into the cobble stones of the path.  The desktop scene blends into the scenery of mountains, forests, a river and a lake.  A man is traveling down the road, carrying the bundles of hay so commonly seen here, and a woman is rowing her boat across the lake, filled with packets of the typical Boca fish.

We have also developed the area around the computer lab and library, by funding the construction of new outhouses and a water tap.  Coordination with other Implementing Partners (i.e: Red Cross and World Vision) has been rewarding.  Upon returning we are going to put a sign up on the outside wall of the computer lab with our new name and logo.

Our plans for the future are expanding.  In October, we will reach further out in the community to select our next group of students,  with classes tailored for secondary school students, vulnerable women, Mwange management sectors (such as Red Cross's Water and Sanitation), the Zambian community and Mwange Community members at large.  We will also be adding more advanced classes, such as typing classes and continued practice sessions for students who have already completed the first round of classes.  We will be recruiting and training selected students to become Educators for future computer classes and monitors for computer center activities.

Over the next year, John and I will also be busy as FORGE's project managers for Mwange and Kala Refugee Camps.  Through collaboration with the refugee and implementing partners, our team's projects have been amazingly successful.  The Mwange Journal sold out its first issue, and reporters are already busying compiling new articles.  The students from the Women's Empowerment Class have come together to plan reproductive health seminars for their community.  The Poetry Club performed its first of their monthly shows for the community, on of hip-hop and rap and the other of poetry.  The Mwange Women's Agricutural Cooperative has prepared their new piece of land and will be planting seedlings in the next couple weeks.  Face AIDs is preparing to follow suit with their own soya farm to support people with AIDs and orphans both financially and nutritionally.  A core group of peer mentors from the the HIV/AIDs Awareness and Recreation Program will continue classes and education for the community.  The Peace Club is beginning its own vending business in order to become financially self-sufficient.  Students from the piano and guitar classes have amazed us with their talents.  The library is bustling with books and their readers.

None of this could have been accomplished with out the resounding support and assistance we have received from you.  So, with gratitude from all of us and the Mwange community, thank you so much.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Amani na Furaha,

Jolie and John

Computer Center Directors

This weekend I attended a Phi Theta Kappa leadership conference in Newton, Iowa. It was an unseasonably cold day with a biting 20 degree wind blowing fiercely outside. Despite the chill, it was very sunny, not only outside but inside as well.

The welcoming smiles and sincere embraces that Phi Theta Kappa greeted me with warmed me through and through. Members from 27 chapters drove hundreds of miles to learn how to make themselves stronger leaders for a tomorrow that I hope to be part of. When they had a free moment to chat we shared stories of our families, our pasts, our hopes and our dreams. We got to know each other not only as the person on the other end of the phone or email line, but also as friends.

Everyone kept thanking me for coming to speak to them about Better World Books, but I'm the grateful one. So to everyone of the Iowa Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Conference: Thank You. Thank you for your embraces, smiles, applause, hospitality, and for sharing your lives and time with me. Thank you for wanting to be better people and stronger leaders. Thank you for all the good things you do for your community and our world when so many people today look out only for themselves. Thank you for all of your hard work, for running successful book drives, and for supporting BWB and our literacy partners. And thank you to everyone else who supports BWB; thank you for saving books from landfills, for helping to break the cycle of poverty through education and literacy, and most of all thank you for making this world a better place!

Yanna C. Ogilvie
Midwest Regional Director

It's been a busy week in the Logistics office, starting and ending with a bang.  Monday found the Campus Division Support Agent (myself) navigating a very large truck through the streets of Chicago to pick up 9 pallets of books generously donated by the Chicago Public Library's Friends of the Blackstone Branch.  The streets of Chicago never felt so narrow, but with the help of a few dedicated volunteers, especially Betsy Glynn, my navigator, and Dina Weinstein, our contact at the book sale, we were able to get about 9000 books boxed up and loaded in under two hours.  Great job and thank you to everyone involved! 

Now Friday has finally arrived, and we ended our week in the warehouse by sending our second shipment of approximately 18,000 college text books directly to the Kampala International University in Uganda. 

We have more of these direct shipments scheduled and we will try to keep everyone updated as they go out.  In the meantime, everyone have a fantastic weekend, and keep those books coming!

Books for Africa a "key" priority
Ryersonian 10/11/2006, by Izabela Szydlo
http://www.ryersonline.ca/articles/539/1/Books-for-Africa-a-quotkeyquot-priority/Page1.html

The Golden Key Honour Society is trying to help open doors to literacy in Africa.

The group, which targets top students in each department, has partnered with a charity organization called Books for Africa.  The hope is to promote higher education in the continent which struggles with combating illiteracy.

“Our main goal is to collect textbooks which are no older than five years old,” said Vipin Khullar, president of Golden Key’s Ryerson chapter.

“If you’re trying to educate people in other countries all the books need to be up to date.”

The book drive, which will consist of boxes placed in high-traffic areas such as Jorgenson Hall, brought in about 700 books last semester.  Khullar said students can be expected to see boxes out next week.

“My goal is to raise more books than any school in the northeast region,” he said.  “With every event that we do I try to get Ryerson’s name out there and show a sense of community that the university has.”

Namarig Ahmed wants to help support the cause, but the second-year nursing student said that the campaign needs to be better advertised and students need to be made aware of what the boxes are.

“I’m definitely going to drop off some of my older texts,” she said.  “But I think people may pass the bin and say: “why should we send some random book to Africa?” without realizing that they collect a whole bunch of the same book and send it off.”

According to the Books for Africa website, since 1988 more than 13 million books have been donated in hopes of putting an end to illiteracy, which stands at 41 per cent among Africans over the age of 15.

The organization is partnered with a larger literacy campaign called Better World Books, which provides boxes and funding so that books can be shipped
directly to classrooms and libraries.  Books are sent to 26 countries, including Botswana, Senegal and Sudan.

Jennifer Hargreaves, director of Canadian operations for Golden Key, said that the campaign is not only positive but also reflective of her organization’s goals.

“It really supports our goals of supporting higher education and academic achievement,” she said.

“We’re helping students understand basic human rights and allowing them to take a more direct role in the educational process.”

By Sarah Lynne Reul, New England Regional Director.

As you may already know, Better World Books joined forces with a great new literacy partner over the summer. The World Education and Development Fund (a.k.a. “Worldfund”) is a young non-profit organization dedicated to reducing poverty in Latin America by funding high-quality education for impoverished children. Visit their website www.worldfund.org to learn more about the programs they support in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.

Worldfund’s mission is essential, as fewer than 30% of students in Latin America complete secondary school. The absence of an educated workforce is a critical factor stunting economic development and discouraging investment in Latin America. However, Worldfund is already making an impressive impact - in just three short years, they have already raised over $2 million to fund school networks that support more than 30,000 children across Latin America.

If you choose Worldfund as your partner this semester, here’s the impact your qualifying books can make:

500 books: Fund a one-year student scholarship at a top quality school 
1,000 books: Fund the purchase of materials for a 35-student classroom
2,000 books: Fund four student scholarships at a top quality school
5,000 books: Fund a teacher’s salary for a full year
10,000 books: Fund two teacher’s salaries for a full year

We’ve already developed new posters for Worldfund campus book drives, complete with space to write the name of your student group– see below! Better World Books is moving towards greener materials – all Worldfund posters will be printed with biodegradable “eco-ink” on 25% post-consumer recycled paper, in a carbon-neutral printing process.

Better World Books is proud to include Worldfund as a potential partner for your campus book drive this semester, along with our other great literacy partners, Books for Africa, Room to Read, and the National Center for Family Literacy. Talk to your Regional Director today to find out how you can get involved in a book drive for Worldfund!

 

By Elena Kuzmin, Co-Vice President of the University of Toronto’s Golden Key Chapter. 

This past spring, our Golden Key chapter collected 94 cartons of books to benefit Books for Africa, making it one of the most successful drives in the Northeast region. The strength of our book drive can be largely attributed to our extensive promotional campaign. Promoting our book drive helped us to do more than let people know where they could donate books.  It also helped us connect the students and faculty memebers to the cause of African literacy and education.  To get the word out around campus we used flyers, posters, mass emails and made class announcements.  We also had an article about the book drive written in the campus newspaper. 

Of all the promotional methods we utilized, class presentations were the most effective.  We found that posters, flyers, emails and newspaper articles were all great ways to spread the word, but they often blended into a vast sea of campus postings and daily emails.  However, when we were in front of a class making an announcement about the book drive, there was no way the students were going to miss us. 

Hearing about the book drive from fellow students helped our classmates to understand the impact their donation would have on global literacy. It also helped them to understand how easy it would be for them to get involved and become part of the solution.  After all, making a difference is as easy as dropping a book in a box.   

The best part was that organizing such an extensive promotional campaign didn’t require too much time.  Since we started promoting our book drive by the middle of the semester, we were able to exercise all our promotional options and have everything in place well before finals started.  On average, getting everything set and ready to go only took one to two hours a week. 

I wouldn’t recommend replacing posters, flyers, emails, and newspaper articles with class announcements, but I would definitely recommend using class announcements to compliment them.  It worked for our organization and it will definitely work for yours!

By Damara Lauren Catlett, Northern Mid-Atlantic Regional Director.

For too many people literacy vs. illiteracy has become a question of life vs. death. Understanding the correlation between illiteracy, disease and poverty is not intended to contribute to fear and helplessness felt by many when observing the severity of HIV/AIDS crisis. Rather these studies are a cue for what we can all do today to combat this pandemic. UNESCO reports that: 

“Given the impact of the epidemic worldwide, with nearly 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS, the role of literacy and non-formal education needs to be fully acknowledged and promoted as part of the overall response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.”

The most at risk population for contracting HIV/AIDS are the rural poor, particularly woman and girls who comprise 70% of the world’s impoverished population.  Our international literacy partners Books for Africa, Room to Read and World Fund serve the most vulnerable communities by helping them obtain the life long tool of literacy which assists in the reduction of poverty and access to education and appropriate information with regard to health related issues.

Although, our book drives encourage the small and simple act of donating a used textbook, the collective impact and results of these acts of kindness are anything but small. What’s so exciting about Better World Books is that by addressing illiteracy, one of the factors contributing to disease and poverty, we are able to provide a tangible way to address the gargantuan statistics and despondency surrounding the HIV/AIDS pandemic.