Tablets to Africa: More children and schools to receive e-Books and e-Readers in non-profit’s heroic push to expand reading access across the digital divide

ST. PAUL, Minn., July 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –Books For Africa, a leading non-profit shipper of books, and Worldreader, a leading non-profit empowering the world’s poorest people with e-readers and digital content, have formed a unique partnership to send both e-books and e-readers to schools and students across Africa in the coming months.

The partnership draws on the strengths of Books For Africa’s distribution network across the continent and Worldreader’s strength as the leading social enterprise providing digital content and e-readers for schools in Africa.

“It is truly a collaboration that that will allow both organizations to continue doing what they do best and, in working together, increase educational opportunities across the African continent,” said Patrick Plonski, executive director of the St. Paul-based Books For Africa (BFA).

“Once we put an e-reader in a child’s hand, she is able to download new and relevant information with a touch of a button. Now, children and families are empowered with a digital library which holds thousands of relevant books and never closes. We’re thrilled to partner with Books For Africa so that more people can change the world around them,” said David Risher, CEO and Co- Founder of Worldreader.

The first order of 50 e-readers under this partnership has been secured by Books For Africa’s strategic partner, the Sir Emeka Offor Foundation, for a shipment to Nigeria in the near future to assess the usability of this technology in Nigeria and across Africa and to serve as a model for future shipments.

Books For Africa, based in St. Paul and founded in 1988 by Tom Warth, has a simple goal: to end the book famine in Africa. Books For Africa remains the largest shipper of donated text and library books to Africa, shipping over 28 million books to 49 different countries since 1988.
https://www.booksforafrica.org/

Worldreader, a global organization headquartered in San Francisco, has as its mission to make digital books available to children and their families in the developing world, so millions of people can improve their lives. As of May 2013, Worldreader has put over 609,000 e-books—and the life-changing, power-creating ideas contained within them —into the hands of 13,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa. https://www.worldreader.org/

Contact: Patrick Plonski, Books For Africa; 651.291.2713 or 651.491.3391 (mobile)
Doug Stone, 651.336.0007 (mobile)
Susan Moody, Worldreader 646.853.1721 (mobile)

RELATED LINKS
https://www.booksforafrica.org

Tablets to Africa!