Book Aid International have announced that over 23,000 brand new books donated by UK publishers are now on their way to Liberia. The books will be used by the WE-CARE Foundation, The University of Liberia and Plan Liberia to support education across the country and enrich the lives of thousands of readers.
Liberia is Africa’s oldest modern republic. Originally home to freed slaves from America, Liberia was the first African nation to elect a female president in 2005, but its history has been marred by conflict. The country was devastated by two periods of civil war that raged from 1990-1997 and again from 1999-2003, leaving an estimated 250,000 people dead. 80% of schools were destroyed or damaged and most of the country’s teachers fled the country.
Liberia’s recovery was further impacted by the Ebola outbreak in 2014 in which 4,809 people lost their lives. More than 4,400 schools were closed for six months during the epidemic leaving 1.5 million children without access to education. Today, Liberia lags behind most other African countries in nearly all education statistics.
Book Aid International is proud to provide books to its partners across the county who are working to improve the lives of Liberians through education and reading. Michel Weah from the WE-CARE Foundation in Liberia explained the impact the books will have:
“One of the major problems in our Liberian schools is lack of books and this shipment from Book Aid International will really help in meeting that need. Trained teachers and books readily available to the students create an environment where learning is taking place. These will be part of the effort to fill the chronic need for current books that is endemic at all levels of the Liberian school system.”
Alison Tweed, Book Aid International’s Chief Executive, spoke of the charity’s commitment to expand its work into Liberia:
“The need in Liberia is great and we are very pleased to be able to provide thousands of brand new books to support Liberian readers and learners. The books we are providing range from story books which will ignite children’s imaginations to university texts which will help students develop their professional skills, so they will support people from all walks of life. I would like to extend a warm thank you all of the publishers here in the UK who so generously donated the brand new, beautiful books which are currently on their way to Liberia.”
Book Aid International’s expansion into Liberia was funded by Players of People’s Postcode Lottery. To date, players of People’s Postcode Lottery have provided a total of £900,000 to help the charity send books to readers around the world.
To find out more about Book Aid International’s planned work in Liberia, please visit: https://www.bookaid.org/countries/liberia
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
