African Library Project

The African Library Project changes lives book by book by starting libraries in rural Africa. Our grassroots approach mobilizes U.S. volunteers, young and old, to organize book drives and ship books to a partner library in Africa. Our method makes a concrete and personal difference for children on both continents

1) The African schools and communities apply through a local partner organization to request a library. Each school or community is required to provide the space, bookshelves and staffing for the library, which encourages sustainability. They also specify the kinds of books needed for greatest impact.

2) We match each approved African library project with a U.S.-based school or organization that agrees to collect gently used books and to raise the money to ship the books.

3) We support both parties to create a fabulous library! On the U.S. side, we support book drive organizers with specific tools and methods to collect 1000 books and raise $500 per library project. On the Africa side, we provide a manual on how to set up and run a library in a developing country. Our partners provide training and follow up to evaluate each project and encourage good library practices, so that donated books reach those who need them most.

Our partners in Africa work with us to develop 30-60 new libraries every year in their region. They screen and select local library projects, clear the books through customs, and warehouse and distribute the books to their destination. They also train teacher-librarians, measure progress and ensure each library thrives over time. Our partners include non-profits and governmental organizations.

Our volunteer book drive organizers collect 1000 books and raise about $500 in shipping funds for each library.
They rally their local communities to donate books; sort the books to ensure appropriate fit; hold a book packing party to get the books ready for shipment; and mail the books to our U.S. warehouse.
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Our Board of Directors are hands-on volunteers who are deeply involved in planning, organizing and implementing our core activities.

As of February 2019, we have:

Completed 2,620 libraries in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Cameroon, Lesotho, Nigeria, Botswana, Swaziland, Malawi, Ghana, South Africa, Sierra Leone, and Kenya.
Created 1,500+ partnerships with U.S. schools and other organizations.
Donated over 2.6 million books.
Organized major conferences to share best practices among our African Partners in 2008 (Botswana), 2009 (Lesotho), 2011 (Swaziland), 2013 (Malawi), 2015 (Ghana) and Botswana (2017).