I’ve received a couple emails about The Book Wish Foundation, an organization that raises funds to provide books for refugees. They’re running a holiday campaign that might be of interest to readers. They’re raising funds for library construction, English textbooks and primary school textbooks for Darfur refugees, and they suggest a donation of $1 for each book you received as a gift this holiday season. I’ve never dealt with this organization but, as far as I can tell, it is a legitimate charity. If anyone knows more about it, let me know, and I’ll update this post.
Update: I just received a message from the founder of Book Wish and this is what she had to say -
A little more about us, if you want: Your readers can learn more about us on our website:http://www.bookwish.org. We’re definitely a legitimate charity! We were founded in October 2007, launched February 2008, and became a 501 (c) (3) in November 2008. Our Chad/Darfur project is a partnership with the British NGO, CORD, a 41 year old charity, that runs education programs in some refugee camps in eastern Chad for UNHCR and UNICEF (Breguine, Treguine, and Gaga camps). The refugees view learning English as their “road to freedom.” Since receiving two shipments of requested ESL books from us, the numbers of refugees studying English has jumped from 400 to 800 to now at least 1,100 (since May 2008). We have a number of corporate sponsorships, include Oxford University Press, publishers of the Headway ESL curriculum the refugees wanted; Air France (shipping); and over 10 optical companies that have donated to us 1,750 pairs of reading glasses for the refugees. 250 pairs of reading glasses, specifically requested English/Arabic dictionaries, and a pilot solar lighting package have just reached Chad, our 3rd successful shipment. Our website explains who we are — a mother-son team inspired to provide humanitarian aid in the form of reading relief to the refugees and other people of crisis around the world.
2 Comments
December 28, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I got the same requests to add some info to Book Blogs. Do you think I should make a group about bookish charities, mention it in the discussion, or leave these kinds of things out of the site altogether? What do you think?
December 29, 2008 at 3:22 pm
This looks like a good program; nice that you heard back from the founder right away with a detailed response.
As for Trish’s comment, I think it might be nice to add a section on Book Blogs with bookish charities, reserving the right to delete the book if it starts to look like advertising or blatant solicitation (spam).