Recently Travis Louie, the Teacher-Librarian at Gray Elementary School went through the school’s non-fiction book collection to remove books more than 10 years old. This resulted in around 200 books being collected and then donated to Afretech, a non-profit organization that aims to advance education in rural Africa.
“The books from Gray Elementary will soon be supporting student learning in a school located in the Republic of Ghana on the west coast of Africa,” said Travis.
In January 2024, the school district donated a few hundred books to Afretech, who rebound the books, added spine labels and shipped them overseas to a school in Kenya in collaboration with Rotary World Help. Afretech also paid for tables, benches and metal shelving units to create a proper library at the school.
“Some of the students had never held a book before,” said Bonnie Sutherland, retired Delta teacher and co-founder of Afretech. “Now the school has a proper, functioning library. It’s wonderful to see the joy in students’ faces.”
Schools in Delta and Afretech have worked together for more than 30 years to make a difference for children by giving new life to used school library books for children in the developing world. As a result, thousands of books have found their way onto desks or formed the basis for libraries where they never existed before.
If you are interested in supporting Afretech whose goal is literacy for all, donations are gratefully received. Please visit: https://www.afretech.org/index.html for more information.
Photos: Books donated from Delta schools in a rebuilt school for girls in Nairobi, Kenya
