Our Destination Founded in Nairobi, Kenya in 1991, the African Children's Book Box Society distributes portable libraries of African books in the form of "Book Boxes" to schools in Kenya and Tanzania. The main objective is to provide African children with literature that is culturally relevant to them. Where we came from - our history Where we're going - our goals
		Where we came from: Our History In 1990 Anne Pearson, a Canadian teacher, began visiting schools in Kenya. Stark differences from Canadian schools quickly became apparent. Classrooms of 50-70 children broke into applause after hearing a published African storybook. It became clear there were virtually no books in many schools. Kenyan teachers and their students were desperate for printed material especially from their own culture. How can children learn to read and write without books? The idea was hatched to purchase and supply books written by Africans about Africa for distribution to elementary school children. Many of the books in the book boxes are written in English, with several books written in Swahili and a variety of tribal languages. In Tanzania 80% of the books are written in Swahili. African fables and folktales, poetry, animal and nature stories, plays, modern African tales and non-fiction are included in the book boxes. The idea was simple. African books were purchased from publishers in Kenya and Tanzania, placed in strong metal boxes built by local craftsmen and distributed one or two book boxes per school. To date over 25,000 school children have benefitted from this project. For the past 15 years fundraising for the Book Box Society has remained modest. Funds have been donated by family, friends, schools and churches. The response has been deeply gratifying. In total 232 book boxes have been distributed in Kenyan and Tanzanian schools. In addition 1000 books have been used to establish the innovative mobile book box program at the Nairobi Teachers Centre. [Back to top]
Where we're going - our goals The United Nations Millennium Development goals stress the importance of achieving "universal primary education." How can this be done without books? Our society's main purpose is to support and increase literacy in Africa by providing children with their own stories and literature written by African authors. Our initiative has made a small dent in the desperate need for reading material but there is still a great deal to do! Our hope is to continue to expand and make a real difference for African children. We hope this new website will become a vehicle for information and fund-raising for the expansion of the book box program. Our project for this year is to raise our profile and get our message out to more people. We hope to have regular updates, news and letters posted on the "News from Africa" page to keep all contributors and visitors informed of new developments. It is our hope that a simple metal box filled with books can begin to act as a catalyst for change. [Back to top]