Regrettably the standard of education in many developing countries has advanced little since the Book Project was first founded in 1982. Reports from well respected NGOs state that in many countries, delivering on the commitment to compulsory education fails due to lack of funds. In most developing countries, public funding for primary education is inadequate to meet demand. Schools in developing countries are very poorly equipped. They lack textbooks and teaching materials, and when these are available, they are often as outdated as the buildings and furnishings. Education for children in developing countries remains a critical issue. Although education is the responsibility of the state, public funding in developing countries is insufficient, so that there are never enough books. This situation is unlikely to change for many years. A donation of 25,000 books from The World Bank Family Network Book Project will continue to make a valuable contribution for some time to come.

The Book Project team completed the shipment for Sudan in record time. But, we learned from our colleagues in GSD that a license was required to ship books to Sudan. They set about completing the necessary paperwork. The packing room is large, but a large shipment of 23 skids takes up a lot of room. We are very grateful that the warehouse agreed to store the shipment for us until the license had been obtained.

With the space reclaimed the volunteers were anxious to start packing for Cameroon. Cameroon is a dual language country where both English and French are spoken. With the majority of book donations coming from American schools we anticipated that it would be difficult to find sufficient French Books to include. But the gods of text books must have sensed our anxiety, for the French International School called and told us that they would donate 23 boxes of new books. One of our volunteers rushed over there and even made several trips before they could change their minds.

Our volunteer Shipping Manager had to face the challenges of packing, this person is responsible for making sure the boxes contain, as far as possible, the kinds of books that have been requested, the boxes correctly labeled and the skids packed for shipping. The Packing Manager needed to keep good order in the packing room as books in two languages and many subject areas had to be sorted, stamped and packed.

We were fortunate once again to be working with a distributor who is based both in country and here in the Washington Metro area. Nascent Solutions is a non-profit organization that has a school feeding program. So when our shipment of books arrives they will be distributing ‘food for the mind’ at the same time as the children receive a good meal.

The book project is run entirely by people like you, who volunteer their time. It is a program with lots of opportunities for WBFN members. Anyone can volunteer. Perfect English is not a requirement. In fact volunteering at the book project is a good opportunity to practice or perfect your English language skills.

No special knowledge or skill is necessary; if you can use a computer, if you have a logistics background, if you have been in PR, if you are a teacher, if you have been in the medical field, the project can offer some challenging roles. Even if you can give only a few hours a week the book project still welcomes you.

In addition to Cameroon, shipments will be going to Malawi and Ghana. If you are from one of these places, come and help assemble a shipment to benefit education in your homeland.

Hilary Welch