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“Good books in the hands of young African students form the foundations upon which they can build a brighter future for themselves and their communities. Education gives them a hope that they keep forever.”
Steve Kutschat, Co-Founder |
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Why we do what we do |
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“It is not our goal to change their culture, their ideas or background. We are simply providing the student’s opportunity through books to see the rest of the world.”
Paulie Kutschat, Co-Founder |
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Why do we focus on Secondary Schools?
African governments concentrate their limited funding for education toward the elementary level, leaving a great need for the secondary schools.
The older established secondary level schools have few books.
The newer secondary schools are built by the local communities but once the schools are built, there is little or no money to furnish the schools with books. |
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Our Mission |
Bookfriends International, NFP’s mission is to provide hope to secondary school students and teachers in Africa, who do not have books, through the donation of new and used quality text books, library books and educational materials.
Bookfriends works to acquire current, appropriate English language, middle school / high school books from donors in the United States and delivers them to schools and villages in Africa.
The schools' needs are pre-determined prior to shipment through direct contact with an established and growing network of school and village leaders.
Delivery of our books has been primarily within the country of Tanzania although expansion of the program is anticipated as contacts are established and resources are developed. |
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Filling book shelves. Developing Minds. |
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Why our Volunteers do what they do. |
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"When I first volunteered to help out at Bookfriends, I did so after friends, Steve and Paulie spoke of their visit to Africa. They told of the great need for books in their secondary schools.
When Bookfriends shipments started to arrive, both text and library books, at schools in need and the pictures and letters of appreciation from the students arrived, I was 'hooked'.
I was so impressed with the students English, penmanship and desire to learn that I cannot imagine not helping these young people so eager to learn and aspire to better themselves."
Kass |
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"It's amazing how much Bookfriends has grown since it started. Bookfriends started small with a few piano students helping Steve and Paulie. Since I began volunteering it has grown much larger and really spread throughout the community. Bookfriends mission of providing books to students in Africa who do not have books is very important. I brought my friends with me to work at the warehouse and they really enjoyed it. It is really cool to see how large Bookfriends has gotten."
Shaun |
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"We are blessed in the U.S. to have wonderful educational tools to teach our children. But in many parts of the world children have little or no access to school books so they can learn about science, math, geography and world history. Bookfriends is making a difference one school at a time by sending lightly used textbooks donated by schools in the US to eager educators in Tanzania. All of this is done with volunteers, like the group of middle school students I lead at our church who love to sort and pack books and think about how someone in Tanzania will soon be using them to do homework! Donating time and money to Bookfriends makes a big difference in the lives of others, and the world a better place."
Steve |
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