In October, One Million Lights partnered with the African Library Project by donating 15 solar lanterns to give as gifts to their library development partners at their 2013 Summit in Malawi.  The African Library Project is an all volunteer grassroots nonprofit that coordinates book drives in the USA and Canada to start small libraries in Africa.  Anyone willing to collect 1000 gently-used children’s books and raise about $500 in shipping costs can help start or improve a small African library through the African Library Project.

Founder, Chris Bradshaw wrote this note to us about her experience:

“I wanted to thank you again for the fab lights that you donated to the African Library Project. We gave them as gifts to our partners from Sierra Leone, Ghana, Malawi, Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland.  They really loved them!  And their families love them!  I just heard from Jobo in Lesotho today saying how much his family is enjoying the light.  Umaru, our partner from Sierra Leone, said he uses it every day.  That is because the power goes out every day in Freetown, the capital city, for up to 3 months at a time! 

Here is a picture I took in Malawi of our two Ghanaian delegates, Ernest and Antwi, testing how bright the lights were in broad daylight.  The amount of light these flashlights puts out is really impressive.  It was so nice to give them such a useful gift as a thank you for their dedication to African literacy.  Thank you, One Million Lights, for making it possible.