Books for Afghanistan
by Judith Rosen -- Publishers Weekly, 4/8/2002
It's still too early to send shipments of books and educational materials to war-torn Afghanistan, but two of the largest U.S. nonprofits that donate books internationally, Brother's Brother Foundation in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Sabre Foundation in Cambridge, Mass., are already in the planning stages.
"It's just too expensive and difficult right now," Karen Lensie, development director of BBF, told PW. "It's over $5,000 to fly materials from an airport in India into Kabul. Currently, Afghanistan faces the important task of stabilization and fulfilling the basic needs of all postwar nations: food, shelter, warm clothing and medical treatment."
Last year, BBF, which also donates medical supplies, food and seeds around the world, shipped college-level texts on humanities, finance and computer science, as well as medical textbooks, to neighboring Uzbekistan. It also provided k-6 textbooks and recreational reading materials to Nepal and Vietnam. This year, in conjunction with the Richard Scarry Foundation, it will ship an overrun of The Richard Scarry Counting Book to Nepal, Vietnam and the Philippines. In 2001, BBF donated 80 container loads of books, valued at more than $30 million, to Third World countries.
Sabre will send its first shipment to Afghanistan later this year through a partner that it's been working with in Uzbekistan since 1995. "For us," explained Colin McCullough, who handles book donations, "one of the key issues is quality control and tracking of the books. In every country, we have partner organizations." Sabre is most frequently asked to provide dictionaries, atlases, medical books and law books, as well as educational CD-ROMs and videos.
In 2002, Sabre is hoping to more than double its shipments to Africa, parts of the Balkans and other countries where it has an active donation program. It doubled its warehouse space to 67,000 square feet when it moved to new facilities in Lawrence, Mass., late last year. "In the past, I was quite constricted by space," said McCullough. "We had a number of years in the '90s when we averaged 20 container loads. But this year we will do at least 40."
Publishers or individuals seeking to make book donations can reach BBF at (412) 321-3160 or visit its Web site at www.brothersbrother.org. Sabre can be contacted at (617) 868-3510 or at www.sabre.org.
