UA Students Join National ‘Books for Africa’ Campaign

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Students in The University of Alabama School of Social Work and members of UA Mortar Board honorary are taking part in the national “Books for Africa” literacy movement and collecting textbooks to help college-age students in countries across Africa.

This campaign will run until Dec. 16 and then begin again Jan. 6-16. The UA students are collecting college textbooks of any subject that are no more than five years old to send to students in African countries.

The national book-collecting campaign was started by three Notre Dame graduates who collected textbooks on their campus to help pay for their education. After realizing that their idea could assist needy college-age students in other regions of the world, they came up with the company Better World Books.

Better World Books works with four different regions of the world. They have sent more than 500,000 books overseas since 2002 and have donated more than $1 million in additional revenue to the countries that are receiving the books.

UA social work student groups are working with members of UA Mortar Board to set up collection points on campus. UA students are encouraged to donate textbooks that they are not selling back or keeping.

Collection boxes are currently located in Ferguson Center, Tutwiler Hall and at the School of Law. There will also be collections bins in the UA Supply Store as well as the off-campus book stores. Other collection bins will be located in the student resident halls and within the individual schools on campus.

UA student teams will pick up the donated books from the collection bins on a regular basis so they can be shipped to the students in Africa.