Yesterday I visited Zolozolo Primary School for the Grand Opening ceremonies for their new library. This school recieved 1.5 tons of books from the World Care shipment. Zolozolo has dedicated a small room for the library, built shelves, labeled everything by category, and are making arrangements for student library cards and class visits to the library for reading time. This is a school that only had 1 book per 6 or so kids before this shipment.

Makeshift ClassroomThis blog is long, LONG overdue. Back in April I started visiting local primary (grades 1-8) and secondary (grades 9-12) schools, planning for the distribution of books coming from World Care in Tucson. We were expecting the container to ship out from the World Care warehouses at the end of May, which would have it arriving in Malawi 3-6 months later. Just last Friday, October 20th , we received the container in Mzuzu and unloaded 30,000 lbs of books into an empty classroom at Mzuzu University where they will be stored during distribution. This literally doubles, even quadruples in some cases, the number of books at these schools. It’s very exciting to be a part of this effort.

Our so called “Box Project” involves a large shipment of humanitarian aid supplies that will be delivered to Malawi through collaboration between World Care International and the University of Arizona. World Care is directed and founded by Lisa Hopper, a former teacher, who has experience shipping aid supplies to more than 30 different countries over the last ten years. Hopper and her volunteers are especially experts in getting books and school supplies into the hands of children and communities in developing countries.

This will be World Care’s first shipment to Malawi, for which they are partnering with Dr. Wayne Decker and his International Studies students from the University of Arizona. Three students are responsible for fundraising the $15,000 needed to cover transport costs, while World Care will provide all of the supplies to fill a 40ft shipping container. This is serious business!