African Library Project

The Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos is proud to partner with the African Library Project in bringing thousands of books to school aged children in underserved communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Kiwanis has supported the project in many different ways – packing books, donating boxes, hauling boxes to the post office, driving a truckload of books to New Orleans, and a lot of funding! The local African Library Project coordinator is club member Sharon Allen.

In cooperation with our student leadership programs at local elementary schools and the Los Alamos Middle School, we coordinate book-drives to gather the thousands of books needed to form a library.

Over the past 9 years many of our youth clubs have collected and funded multiple libraries. Members, even those as young as first grade, write notes encouraging reading, color posters, and bookmarks to include in the boxes of booksl.

Libraries may serve preschool, primary, or secondary populations, so the many collected books are sorted for age groups, and then packed for shipping to Africa. It takes 1000-1200 books to complete a full library.

In the past 9 years the Los Alamos community has helped create almost 150 libraries in Malawi, Ghana, Lesotho, Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, and Sierra Leone – all countries where English is the language of instruction used in schools.

There is a significant cost to transport the boxes to the port for shipping overseas. Sometimes the boxes are mailed, and other times we rent a U-Haul and drive the boxes to the port. Generally, the cost to ship a library averages $600.

How You Can Help?

• Participate in a Book Drive: If you are a parent, grandparent or teacher with a collection of secular children’s books, please save them for one of our book drives. Books are usually collected by each school, so be on the lookout for news on the next drive!
• Join a Packing Party: When it is time to ship, those thousands of books need to packed into boxes, counted, and labeled.
• Donate to Offset Shipping Costs: The biggest challenge we face in building libraries is shipping costs. Your financial support helps ensure the collected books get into the hands of the children in Africa. Suggested donations are $5 for a roll of shipping tape, $35 to ship a single box, $600 to ship a full library, or any amount you feel comfortable donating.

Uxue Sansinena, LAHS Key Club President (24-25) and a 2024 Kiwanis scholarship recipient, said this in her essay about her involvement with ALP:

“I can’t look away, eyes glued to the screen as I watch the scene of smiling children carrying away boxes of books I helped pack for the African Library Project. I helped them. I did that. This experience in 5th grade K-Kids opened my eyes to the impact I could have on the lives of others, sparking my passion for service…”

Contact: Sharon Allen, [email protected]