A transatlantic journey Archived article from Apr 24, 2006

Credit: Nick Romanenko Faculty, staff and students at Rutgers University donated 1,216 books that will be shipped through Books for Africa, the world’s largest shipper of donated textbooks to the continent. Rohail Rizvi, left, and Matthew Zegarek, both Rutgers College first-year students, pick up books from a box in the lobby of the Wright-Rieman Chemistry Labs on Busch campus. Ten boxes were placed at various points around campus, including the Rutgers Student Center and Busch Campus Center. Faculty members were encouraged to donate old textbooks for use in college classrooms in African universities. Rizvi and Zegarek are members of Rutgers College’s Emerging Leaders Institute, which held its “Acts of Goodwill” week from April 3 to April 7. The student group also worked with the charity Better World Books. Since 1988, Books for Africa has shipped nearly 13 million primary, secondary, postsecondary and community library books to hundreds of schools, libraries and bookstores throughout 26 African countries. All of the books collected in the drive at Rutgers will be donated to Books for Africa or sold online, with 100 percent of the profits going to Books for Africa.

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