The African Library Project (ALP) is a non-profit organization that starts libraries in rural Africa. U.S. volunteers organize book drives and ship books to a library in Africa. ALP partners with governmental and non-governmental organizations in

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. The partners process applications from schools and communities that want libraries, distribute the books, and provide training. Schools and communities that receive books provide the library space and staffing. ALP works in

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

, and

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. ALP is a US 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2005 by Chris Bradshaw. In the first eleven years of operation, ALP started over 1,900 libraries in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, ALP has managed the creation of 4,143 libraries containing a total of 4,315,274 books.

Methods of operation

ALP volunteers in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

collect used, donated books for later shipment to affiliated libraries in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. The volunteers then sort, pack, and ship the books via sea container, for eventual delivery to a designated African school or community. A typical small library is one thousand (mostly

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, ...

) books. As of August 2020, the cost of shipping the books to Africa is about $500: $250 in U.S. domestic postage to mail the books to a consolidation point in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Louisiana, and $250 sent to ALP to defray the costs of container shipping.

Volunteers and Partners

ALP volunteers are often high school students or full elementary/middle school classes that work together to collect sufficient books and funds for a library. Volunteers often participate in multiple libraries over longer periods of time. ALP partner organizations are large governmental and non-governmental organizations that vet schools and communities that want libraries. When the containers arrive, they contain books for 30–60 libraries. The partners distribute them and also provide training and oversight of the libraries. {, class="wikitable" , +African Library Partnerships !Country !Active Since !Partner Organization(s){{Cite web, last=, first=, date=8 November 2019, title=Our Partners {{! African Library Project, url=https://www.africanlibraryproject.org/our-partners/, url-status=live, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126232255/https://www.africanlibraryproject.org/our-partners/, archive-date=November 26, 2020, access-date=January 21, 2021, website= , - , Botswana , 2006 , Botswana Ministry of Education , - , Ghana , 2001 , Michael Lapsley Foundation , - , Kenya , 2017 , Rongo University, Kibabii University , - , Lesotho , 2004 , US

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an Independent agency of the U.S. government, independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. It was established in Marc ...

Lesotho, Lesotho Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) , - , Malawi , 2009 , Development Aid from People to People (DAPP Malawi), Wungwero Book Foundation (WBF), Malawi Institute of Education (MIE), University of Malawi , - , Sierra Leone , 2013 , Reading Initiative Salone (RISE) Network , - , Uganda , 2019 , Enjuba, Firm Foundation Education Trust (FFET) Teachers and administrators of the target schools are given a manual on managing a library based on one developed by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). Librarians collect data on usage and attend training provided by the partners and ALP. Librarians from all the countries where ALP is working meet at the biannual Library Summit to share best practices. Each library requests the specific types of books they need. In addition to the donated books, ALP purchases supplemental books for the libraries: the Junior African Writers Series (JAWS), HIV/AIDS readers (published by Pearson), and Hesperian Health Guides.

References

External links

African Library Project Home Page
Philanthropic organizations based in the United States Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco Charities based in the United States 501(c)(3) organizations