Success Stories
From Aisles of Adventure to Libraries: A Journey with Books and the African Library Project
In a busy Indian grocery store in the heart of San Jose, California, the air was filled with aromatic spices and the shelves were stocked with colorful items. A young boy explored the aisles, holding The Lost Hero in one hand and pushing the cart with another. That...
Case Study – Arua Public Primary and Nursery School
Encouraging Young Readers in Arua Arua Public Primary and Nursery School is located in northern Uganda, near the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. As a result, 300 of the 1,535 students are refugees. The school also hosts 130 boarding...
Case Study – Youth Corps Learning Center
Encouraging Young Readers in Kampala, Uganda Youth Corps Learning Center is located in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. It’s a technical school that teaches computer skills, hairdressing, cosmetology, catering, and sewing for students who can’t afford school fees....
Case Study – Joy Early Learning Nursery and Primary School
Encouraging Young Readers In Arua, Uganda Joy Early Learning Nursery and Primary School is a private school located in Arua district in northwestern Uganda, near the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. It has about 130 young, lively, engaged,...
Case Study – Arua Public Secondary School
Encouraging Young Readers in Arua Arua Public Secondary School is a large school in Arua, a city in Arua district in Northwestern Uganda. Uganda is one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world, and Arua’s proximity to South Sudan, the DRC and other...
Case Study – Phoebe Education Fund for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (PEFO)
Encouraging Readers in Jinja, Uganda Phoebe Education Fund for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (PEFO) was started by three brothers living with HIV and who wanted to give back to their community by providing care for caregivers. PEFO is located in Jinja, a city in...
Case Study – Cornerstone Leadership Academy for Girls
Encouraging Readers in Kampala, Uganda Cornerstone Leadership Academy for Girls is located near Uganda’s capital city, Kampala. It’s an advanced level boarding high school that aims to make leaders of bright, talented, and disadvantaged girls from throughout Uganda....
Case Study – Inclusion Uganda’s Library
Encouraging Readers in Kampala Inclusion Uganda is located in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. Inclusion serves people with intellectual disabilities, specializing in human rights activism and advocacy. They have centers in 18 districts and 8,000 members...
Book Drive Organizer Spotlight: Riya
Hi, I am Riya! I have completed four book drives with the African Library Project (ALP) between 2020 and 2023. I have loved reading my entire life. I love reading because the impossible is brought to life. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was the first book I...
Case Study – Mukasa Foundation Community Library
Encouraging Young Readers in Ziroobwe, Uganda The Mukasa Community Foundation was started by a professional librarian who wanted to advance literacy in rural Ugandan communities. Its library is located inside a primary school, in a rural town called Ziroobwe in the...
ALP’s Impact: KISS Library and Learning Centre | Malawi
Muli bwanji? Ife tili bwino kwambiri. December 13, 2022 will go down in history as a very memorable day at KISS Library & Learning Centre. This was the day we, together with other 60+ beneficiaries received and offloaded our books from the M-14 Container.With...
Uganda Library Experiences
A collection of student's own narratives about reading and their school's ALP library. Stories collected from January - March 2022. "The organization and cleanness of the library, plus the availability of a wide range of books, are enough to make reading my favorite...
Meet Our New Youth Program Manager
Tatiana Santos, Youth Program Manager Likes: Poetry, Baking, Singing, Creative Self-Expression Location: Las Vegas, NV About Tatiana “My mother is a journalist, so her job had us bouncing around a lot growing up. That experience of moving around so much and being...
ALP’s Impact: Mchedwa Primary School
Malawi Needs Libraries Did you know the literacy rate there is 62 percent? Students in Malawi can go for years without having the opportunity to read a book. For comparison, the United States has a 99 percent literacy rate. This disparity often comes down to the...
BDO Spotlight: Erika Henningsen
Erika Henningsen is a professional Broadway actress living in New York City. Her roles in various productions such as Mean Girls Broadway led her to seek ways to be of service. https://www.instagram.com/p/BzytIFZjSTt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link “I’ve always felt that...
Taking Action with Passion and Purpose
Ever since the third grade, Mira Wadehra knew she wanted to get involved with the African Library Project. In her freshman year of high school, Mira volunteered to host two book drives for schools in Malawi. Loving the experience so much, Mira did another Malwai book...
BDO Spotlight: Alex Breinin
Alex Breinin shares the story of his visit to Wema Children's Centre school in Kenya where students at his former middle school and high school would go on to help start a library with over 1,200 storybooks. From New York to Kenya There is nothing quite like watching...
You’re Never Too Old (or Too Young) to Organize a Book Drive!
Book drive organizers Serena Kapoor and Marilyn Walters are both passionate about books and community service. But there is one big difference: Marilyn, age 79, is one of the oldest people to organize an ALP book drive, while Serena, age 8, was the youngest to run a...
Penn State Produces African Literacy Warrior
Michael Gottfried, a senior at Penn State, has made extraordinary contributions to the African Library Project. Inspired by his hard work, we created a new award to honor his service: the African Literacy Warrior award. Since his freshman year at Penn, Michael has...
Even Better Than Expected
When Samantha and her Brownie leader agreed that their second-grade troop would do a book drive for a library in Africa, they thought that the troop would collect 1000 books for one primary school library in Malawi. But when the PTA president at Field Elementary...
The Best Year of My Life
Guest blogger and long-time book drive organizer, Sharon Allen discusses her experience visiting Kenya. In May of 2016, I retired after 30 years of teaching mostly kindergarten and first grade. Primary teachers tend to be book lovers and I am no exception! Over the...
Sharing the Love of Reading: Enriching Others’ Lives Enriches Your Own.
Spencer Ames, while in 6th grade at The School at Columbia University, led a book drive for Swaziland that enriched his life while enriching the lives of others. His story is inspiring for parents who are seeking a volunteer project for their family that builds...
Unite Africa Book Drive: An Interview with Amday Wolde
Congratulations to Amday and his fellow students on the completion of their first African library through the strength of their student organization Unite Africa. It can be a lot of work to complete one, but getting as many people as possible involved...
A True Flow of Compassion from Georgia to Africa: River Trail Middle School Kids Create 27 African Libraries
Guest blog by Betty Londergan, a friend of ALP, who authors two blogs of her own:heifer12x12.wordpress.com and whatgives365.wordpress.com In the world of blogging, it’s not uncommon to develop meaningful friendships with people whose face you’ve never seen...
From Newbie to Pro:
Carol's Tips for Creating Libraries Carol Younge was astonished. For years, she had been a donor to ALP, volunteering at newsletter stuffing parties, fundraisers, lending a hand when she could. She had always wanted to do a book drive herself, but thought you had to...
Celebrating our 1000th Library
A literal wave of celebration broke out in the Sperreng Middle School auditorium as Chris Bradshaw told students that their book drive established African Library Project's 1000th library for Mpakeni High School in Swaziland. The Lindbergh School District's...
Little Bunny Book Drive
One of our littlest book drive organizers, Amelia "Bunny," is four years old and loves books. She is from Knoxville, TN and has collected nearly 300 so far. She and her mom Kristi came up with a terrific idea when they receive books that are not appropriate for ALP:...
Tips from a Serial Bookdriver
Kristen Lee is a Teacher Librarian at Escondido Elementary School in Stanford, California. Kristen has done 2 ALP book drives with her young students. Here are some great tips for success from her. ALP: How did you learn about ALP?Kristen Lee: I learned about ALP...
Principals get Punked for African Literacy
I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly ...I don't know why she swallowed that fly ... How far would you go to promote world-wide learning and literacy? One school principal we know ate a live bug at a school assembly as a fundraising award. Another got...
Bar/Bat Mitzvahs Start ALP Libraries
When you are a teen and first learning about the challenges facing the developing world, what can you do to make things better? 12-year-old Evan Feldberg-Bannatyne of Newton, MA jumped at the chance to help start an African library: "I'm an avid reader, so books are a...