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Dear Friends

Letter from Chris Bradshaw, ALP Founder

Happy 10th Birthday to Us! We celebrated by having our biggest year ever - 309 libraries to Ghana, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland. We’re up 25% from 2014, and our ten-year total is 1,720 libraries.

Am I proud? You betcha! Proud of all the North Americans and Africans who partner to recycle high quality books into small sustainable libraries in rural Africa where books are in short supply. It is a simple idea, but hundreds of people contribute on both sides of the Atlantic to make each library a reality. Then thousands of people, mostly children, read the books in each library, and “Books Change Everything.”

Eight of our board members just traveled to Ghana (on their own dime) for our 5th bi-annual African Partners Summit. It was totally inspiring! First, 33 delegates from 8 countries met to visit local libraries, share best practices and strengthen our systems and friendships. Next, 85 teacher-librarians from all over Ghana joined us to learn, share ideas, and celebrate. It was crazy fun and inspiring for all!

Despite significant challenges, our African partners remain positive and hopeful about the future of their children. Many work as volunteers in a culture where volunteerism is rare. I’m so grateful to them and to the teacher-librarians who work daily to help children expand their horizons through reading.

With Gratitude,

Chris Bradshaw
ALP Founder / President
 

Your bookdrives and your donations are so important to the work we do.  We're currently recruiting for at least 16 more book drive organizers for our Spring book drives.  Sign up or donate now to make a difference!

African Partners Summit

Our African Partners Summit was a rocking success! The purpose of the bi-annual Summit is to support our African partners to ensure that your donated books are best used to promote literacy and a love of reading.

The 5-day meeting in November brought together library advocates from our six active countries – Ghana, Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho, Sierra Leone and Botswana – plus a prospective partner from Kenya. It was a huge effort to bring everyone together, including a loyal team of ALP US volunteers who paid their own way.

During these 5 days:

  • We had creative discussions about best practices and ways to overcome common challenges.
  • We visited with Ghana Members of Parliament - role models for government support for our efforts.
  • We toured ALP libraries to appreciate their progress and gather best practices. The teachers and students are delighted with their ALP books and proudly showed off their improved reading skills.
  • We conducted workshops for 85 teacher-librarians who joined us from all over Ghana. They learned how to play reading games, encourage creative writing and bookmaking, and use library books to stimulate learning in classroom subjects.
  • We conducted face-to-face planning sessions between each Partner and their US-based ALP liaison to strengthen our work together.

Your financial donations helped to fund the expenses of Africans to attend the Summit. Everyone left more inspired and committed to promote literacy through ALP libraries.

“Our middle school has started 13 libraries over eight years.  It’s so easy to do!  It’s a truly rewarding cause and everyone benefits greatly from the experience.  It’s been a great way to develop a community of service-learners.  We all collect books and our students hold a garage sale to raise the shipping costs.  We love this organization and will vigorously continue our support!”  - Andrea, Jordan Middle School, U.S.A.
“We are really grateful for all the books and the immense support.  The students can now write their own poems, essays and plays.  They’ve even formed reading clubs, drama troupes and debate groups.  The books have inspired more students to read and become great future leaders.”  -  Quist Rafael, Teacher Librarian, Ghana
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