Book Drive for Africa touches many lives

by Kenneth Karest Lewela

Jenkins Macedo's Book Drive for Africa has inspired and touched many individuals.

One such person is Linda St. Germain, a student at Worcester State College, United States, who, upon receiving a student activities notice, decided to involve the student council. She saw it as a symbiotic opportunity for fellow students to benefit from and to also help the less fortunate.

The Book Drive for Africa aims at supplying educational materials, books and used computers to those who need them to give them a chance at a better education.

The project operates on the premise that education can help people help themselves, leading to productivity, which then translates to a violence-free society with peace and prosperity.

The Fanning Learning Center in Worcester, an alternative school for students with difficult home lives and who have difficulties managing in a larger school setting, is also involved in this project.

Theresa Venuti, a teacher at Fanning, has mobilised the entire school community to bring in books from home, and further facilitated Fanning's donation of text books to the project.

Through their involvement, the students at Fanning are able to feel that they are capable of overcoming their obstacles and fears. Thus far Fanning has donated ten computers and ten boxes of textbooks.

Linda aspires to commit more of her time and resources to social anthropology, and hopes that through the seed sown today, the students at Fanning may one day choose a career and a life in human service, having taken steps to make this a peaceful planet.