Chicago Chapter donates books to Ghana and Moldova

Books were collected from Skokie Public Library and Niles Township Library to be donated to Ghana and Moldova.

By Elio Leturia—THE BOOK PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM, an ongoing project of the Chicago Chapter of the Fulbright Association, recently donated 18 boxes of books collected over the past months from different libraries around Chicago.

So far, since the beginning of this program in 2007, books have arrived in Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt and Botswana.

Ana Gil-García

On February 8, 2012, eight boxes of books were donated to schools in Ghana through the organization Books4cause*. Last Friday February 15, Romina Hendrzak from the organization Moldova AID*, received ten boxes to be sent to Moldova schools.

Ana Gil-García and Heidi Rockwell, board members of the Chicago Chapter of the Fulbright Association have been working together on these latest donations. “The Book Partnership is a non-stop flight of the Chicago Chapter that connects fellow Fulbrighters around the world through books. In spite of the recent obstacles of shipment and storage, we were able to ship the books through non-for-profit organizations that operate locally and have similar missions as our project,” Gil-García said.

Heidi Rockwell

For this donation Rockwell collected books from Skokie Public Library and Niles Township Library, and the Chicago Chapter is getting ready to start a book drive not only in CPS schools and Chicago universities, but in other suburban towns. “There was a ‘twist’ from the original project as we have incorporated non-for-profit institutions to help us deliver the books. But, the goal and purposes are preserved: helping children around the globe with books to read. The Chapter is working to refine the process so that we can still work with our fellow Fulbright international association members to keep the sense of partnership,” Gil-García added.

 *Books4cause is a non-profit located in Skokie that runs book drives on campuses across the U.S. and accepts book donations in Chicago. They accept any cd, DVD and book in good condition and ship them to Ghana in Africa. For more information about the program go to http://www.books4cause.com.

*Moldova AID is a non-profit organization that primarily supports informational and educational programs to the Republic of Moldova. For more information visit www.moldovaaid.wordpress.com. Moldova AID launched a new project called A Book Share. The objective of the project is to expand access to academic books to encourage research and development in various fields of science and technology in the Republic of Moldova, and to promote English as a universal platform for accessing information.