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K-State Today

May 19, 2016

Student-led philanthropy book drive collects thousands of textbooks for Books for Africa

Submitted by Brent Fritzemeier

Over the past two months, students on the College of Business Administration Dean's Student Advisory Council have collected an estimated 7,000–8,000 used textbooks to be donated to the Books for Africa nonprofit organization.

The donated books came from all across campus, with 14 different colleges and departments participating in the drive. The Dean's Student Advisory Council is made up of the presidents of all 16 of the college's student clubs and organizations, as well as its student senators. 

"With all of the moving going on in our college and around campus we thought it was the perfect time for us to reach out to the K-State community for this project," said Patrick Kennedy, senior in finance and Student Advisory Council president. "Being able to take these books, that would otherwise just be thrown away or recycled, and donating them to literacy programs for students in Africa is a really cool way for our campus to give back."

Over the summer, the collected books will be shipped to the Books for Africa distribution center. Books for Africa is the largest shipper of donated text and library books to the African continent, shipping over 34 million books to 49 different countries since 1988. During the past 12 months they have shipped 2.4 million books, 665 computers and 200 e-readers containing 1.6 million digital books, as well as five new law and human rights libraries to 21 African countries.