Want to help launch 27 school libraries in Swaziland? me too. here’s how.

We're back in Swaziland and will post vacation pics/vids soon, but first things first-- this is way more important...

The vast majority of schools in Swaziland do not have functioning libraries or access to large collections of books, and our community’s primary school is no different. But they’ve recently renovated an old building for use as a new library and now all that’s needed are books to fill the shelves (see the pics). We’ve been trying to help them do that, pursuing a few different options with the school’s principal (plus, our good friends in Cottonwood, Arizona are even working on something—Cottonwood rocks!). And now YOU can get in on all this literary do-gooder action.


Thanks to fellow PCV (and great friend of ours), Jason Kiener, there is currently a Peace Corps Partnership Project (PCPP) online fundraising effort underway to supply about 30,000 books to over 27 schools in Swaziland… our school being one of the chosen. Want to help? Got five minutes? Donating to this project is easy, just go to this Peace Corps website and follow the steps (on the right-hand side of the page).

We’re among a group of in-country PCVs partnering with Jason on this important nation-wide effort to increase the library/book capacity of rural Swazi schools. The U.S. partner is an organization called Books For Africa, and your donations will help fund the shipment of a giant shipping container full of books to Swaziland. A librarian-training course for participating schools will also be donor-funded. See the above-linked site for more project details.

We estimate that our school, Ngwane Central Primary School, will receive just over 1000 books through this project to help establish its first ever library. Pretty cool, huh? There’s actually shelving space in our school’s renovated building for about 3,000-4,000 books, so the other ongoing book donation efforts are still very much needed and greatly appreciated! Together, all these combined efforts will have a school library up and running in no time.

Jason is using the same program—the PCPP—we used for our community garden water project. 100% of your donation goes to directly to project costs and implementation. Plus, it’s fully tax-deductible.

So if you love books and libraries, and if you love the idea of helping school kids here in Swaziland gain access to books and libraries, then this is a great opportunity to help make that happen. The PCPP amount being raised is US$10,300. Donations of any size are gratefully accepted.

As always, thanks for your continued kindness, generosity and support you’ve all shown us during our time here.