African Library Project

Each elementary school in WSFCS has been paired with a school in Africa to collect donated books for them to be able to start a library at the schools. Our goal is to collect 1,000 books for Tobane Primary School in Botswana. These schools often do not even have textbooks to teach from. We will be collecting now through Feb. 19 and members of the Symphony (who are sponsoring the drive) will pick them up weekly. I will place a purple box outside the library for donations. The types of books needed are also below.

Part of the mission of the African Library Project is to teach Americans about Africa while doing our book drives. You are joining an amazing group of volunteers throughout the USA and Africa who have already started 375 libraries in eight countries. Our book drive is part of a large effort the African Library Project has undertaken to start libraries in Botswana's primary schools. Recycling our gently used books will open a whole new world of learning and opportunity to the students in your partner library in Botswana.

We are so pleased to be partnering with the Winston-Salem Symphony and the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools to start small libraries in the Selibe Phikwe School District of Botswana. This is a unique and innovative project that offers us the opportunity to raise an unprecedented amount of books from a single location in the USA. Our partner in Botswana is Tobane Primary School. Tobane Primary School serves 594 students and has 20 teachers. Your goal is to collect 1,000 preschool-5th grade books from your school. You can also include a few upper level books (up to 8th grade) for the teachers. They are particularly interested in books on agriculture, social studies, science, technology and fiction. They would appreciate puzzles, flash cards and educational games. As a reminder, you can also find a lot of information in the Resource section of our website including a fact sheet about Botswana .

Book Drive Guidelines

Appropriate Books
• Children's Picture Books
• Children's Fiction and Non-Fiction (through middle school would be OK)
• Early Readers
• Juvenile Literature
• Children's Dictionaries
• Encyclopedias less than 15 years old/Children's Encyclopedias
• Accurate atlases
• Thesauruses
• Paperback textbooks in Math, English, Geography and Science
• Books with universal themes (friendship, animals, love, etc.)

Inappropriate Books
• Books that are filled with small print, no pictures, etc. (too intimidating or boring)
• Books with lots of slang (too difficult to follow)
• Books for young children that have many references to household appliances and technology (including refrigerators, microwaves, etc.)
• Adult paperback romance novels
• Books about American holidays or religious holidays
• Books that evangelize or promote a particular religion

Thanks for any help you can give us!