I need your help, please

 Stanley - Thursday

For many years, I've been part of an organisation called Books for Africa. It's a Minneapolis/St Paul-based non-profit whose goal is to provide as many books as possible to schools, libraries, and universities in Africa. You can read more about it here.

Over the past thirty years or so, Books for Africa has sent over 51 million books to the continent, to every one of its 55 countries - from the huge Nigeria to the minute Lesotho. It has also started sending e-readers and e-books, as well as complete law libraries. 

I'm taking 10 Samsung e-readers loaded with a law library to a library in South Africa

Yesterday, I attended a fund-raising event held at the University Club in St Paul. They keynote address was given by the African Union's ambassador to the United States, Her Excellency Hilda Suka-Mafudze. I was moved listening to the impact a simple initiative like Books for Africa can have on people's lives.

With Her Excellency Hilda Suka-Mafudze from Zimbabwe

In the past, I was involved in sending one container (approximately 40,000 books) to South Africa, now I want to help send another to Botswana, a country that has been so good to Michael and me, both for the setting of our books and the friendliness and helpfulness of its people. 

It is very expensive these days to send containers anywhere - approximately $11,000. Books for Africa feels it is essential that recipients have skin in the game, so it requires them to fund getting the container through customs and its transport to the distribution centre. 

There is an existing project in Botswana that I would like to support. It is called the Botswana Book Project, and you can read it about it here. Its goal is to raise $16,000 - more than just shipping a container. It will also fund the logistics and provide essential supplies such as solar lighting, bookshelves, etc. The project is about a quarter of the way to its goal. 

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation, even if it is $5. Every bit works. If you have friends who have travelled to Africa or who are believers in the power of books, please ask them to participate. I am committed to help the Botswana Book Project reach its goal and will match the first $1000 of donations.

If every reader of Murder is Everywhere contributed just the minimum of $5, we would be over halfway there.

Thank you.