AFRICAN LIBRARY PROJECT
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Mission Statement
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.
About This Cause
Overview: The African Library Project (ALP) is an all-volunteer, grassroots US-based nonprofit. Since 2005, ALP's vision is to expand opportunities by creating spaces that nurture literacy. Need: While most African children learn their native language at home, the majority begin to learn their national language (English, French or Portuguese) in school. Students must pass rigorous examinations at the end of their seventh year to gain access to secondary school. ALP operates in English-speaking countries where the demand for books in English is tremendous. Model: Our model is unique. In the United States, ALP has created a system where North American volunteers can help start a library in rural Africa by collecting 1000 gently-used children's books and raising about $500 to cover their shipping fees. Book drives are matched with a specific African Library Project library and receive the application from the African community. Book drive organizers mobilize their local communities to collect and sort the books, then pack and mail them to a US warehouse. At the warehouse, the boxes are consolidated and sent in sea containers to ALP's African partners. In Africa, ALP partners with governments or NGOs (non-governmental organizations) who share our mission of education or library development and have the institutional infrastructure to support the development of 30-60 libraries per year, year after year. Our partners vet local library projects, bring in our containers, distribute the books, train teachers to be teacher-librarians, and provide ongoing support to their network of libraries. Our book drive organizers raise the money to ship their books. Our partners raise the money to vet the library projects, bring in our containers, distribute the books and train the teacher-librarians. Local library projects must provide the space and bookshelves for the library, staff, and a library committee of local citizens passionate about the ongoing success of the library.