ABOUT US

Learn about our mission, board members, and other general information by scrolling down to find the subject you’re interested in or clicking on one of the following subjects.

Mission

Books for Kids Africa believes in helping children everywhere nourish their hopes and dreams—and that learning to read and falling in love with books can kindle hope and help make those dreams come true. By making quality books available to children in schools and communities, Books for Kids Africa helps people improve their lives through education.

Founded in 2009, Books for Kids Africa promotes reading programs for children in Mozambique through mobile classroom libraries in public schools, community lending libraries, teacher training at teacher institutions, and publishing culturally-relevant easy-reader books for schools and communities.
 

Philosophy

The philosophy of Books for Kids Africa is based on the desire that all children have to learn and the belief that the learning process is most successful when education is relevant and engaging. Because reading is central to academic learning, making the process of learning to read relevant and fun is particularly important. The notion of choice is critical to making things relevant—children who have a voice in choosing what to read, read more and are more likely to fall in love with reading and read for pleasure.

The goal, then, of Books for Kids Africa, is to get children “hooked on books”. Its methodology is based on the following principles:

  • Access to reading materials and time to read foster good readers
  • Reading aloud motivates children to read stories
  • Providing choices in what to read fosters greater interest in reading
  • Providing access to books maximizes limited resources
  • Exposing student teachers to participatory methodologies and providing experience helps them establish new teaching skills
     
General

The Books for Kids Africa project in Mozambique seeks to address the lack of quality, economical, and culturally relevant books for children in Mozambique by providing books for community lending libraries and mobile classroom libraries in public primary, along with training teachers to use the books effectively in daily reading programs. In making high-quality children’s books available to Mozambican school children, the Books for Kids Africa project fills a critical gap in Mozambique’s educational program: the lack of non-text reading materials in classrooms, particularly culturally relevant and economical books of high literary and illustrative quality. Studies show that children "learn to read by reading”; without a variety of reading material available, reading skills are not well developed. Since literacy is a basic foundation for educational development, low levels of reading achievement have contributed to inefficiency in Mozambique’s primary school system. In addition, the project trains teachers in active learning methodologies that can be used across the curriculum. The Books for Kids Africa project in Mozambique is part of a larger program to address the fundamental need for improved education in Mozambique and will have long-term development impact.

The Books for Kids Africa project in Mozambique is based on the highly successful Libros para Niños (hyperlink: www.lpninos.com) program in Nicaragua that currently promotes mobile libraries in public schools, community reading corners, and home-based preschools and has published 26 children’s books by Nicaraguan authors and illustrators. Classroom and community center reading programs provide a significant boost to reading achievement and corollary improvements in writing, listening, grammar, and spelling skills. The broader community and school-linked project promotes the concept of reading for pleasure and personal growth and helps get kids "hooked on books".

The Books for Kids Africa project in Mozambique will work directly with established institutions in Mozambique, including local leaders, the government education ministry, and private NGO’s doing training through teacher training schools. By focusing on established institutions, the Books for Kids Africa project capitalizes on existing structures and concentrates its resources on developing the teacher training curriculum around reading programs, coordination, supervision, and monitoring and evaluation. Larger structural needs such as book storage, offices, and training sites will be provided by existing organizations.

The Books for Kids Africa project is under Libros para Niños, NGO incorporated in Iowa in 1993. Libros para Niños is doing business as Books for Kids Africa in Mozambique.

Board Members

Mary Jo Amani – Founder of Libros para Niños, (hyperlink: www.lpninos.com) Mary Jo divides her work between Mozambique and North Carolina.  She has worked in education for over eighteen years and has focused her work on how children learn, obstacles to learning, and reading programs that get children excited about books.  “I believe that books have the potential to change children’s lives through the gift of stories–opening children’s vision toward wonder, imagination, hope, and dreaming of possibilities.” *

A Favorite Book: One of my favorite children’s books is Amos and Boris by William Steig. Besides Steig’s terrific use of language and high level vocabulary, I love that two mammals, a whale and a mouse, improbably become lifelong friends after a chance encounter in the ocean. Their incredibly diverse backgrounds are not a hindrance to deep friendship and love. Would that we all welcome each other into our hearts and lives!

*See below for a longer biography on Mary Jo Amani.

Simone Hardy – Simone Hardy has worked as a professional fundraiser in the UK for over four years in the area of child disability. She has recently completed a Voluntary Services Overseas placement in Mozambique, where she was working with local NGO’s as a development adviser and fundraising trainer.

A Favorite Book: My favorite children’s book is Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.  As a child I loved the darkly beautiful illustrations and the mischievous Max, who sails to the land of the wild things and instead of being scared, he becomes their king.  Max’s anger and conflict with his mother fuels his imagination and desire to escape, but he ultimately realizes that there really is no place like home.

Jamie Weingarten – Jamie Weingarten received her Bachelors Degree in International Relations and Photography in 2001. Since then she has run her own photography business, Photo by Jamie in Jacksonville, Florida.  Jamie brings with her knowledge in marketing and creative business development strategies.  In addition to being on the board, she will document Books for Kids Africa activities for use in publicity, marketing, and fundraising. 

A Favorite Book:  One of my favorite children’s books is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.  I love how the book takes you through the life cycle of the tree and the boy and how their relationship comes full circle, reminding us that the simple pleasures in life are the ones we hold onto in the beginning and what we return to in the end.

Meg Janecek Wall – Meg Wall has been a teacher for over twenty years in the United States and at international schools around the world (Honduras, Guatemala, Egypt, Israel). She has a Masters in Special/Elementary Education and in Leadership and Supervision from Johns Hopkins University. She currently teaches in the gifted and talented program in Baltimore County.

A Favorite Book: I love reading Horton Hatches an Egg by Dr. Seuss to my students–books that rhyme and use humor and creative word choices. Horton’s commitment to protecting the egg demonstrates the wonderful values of patience and tolerance and the importance of determination and persisting through tough situations. “I meant what I said and I said what I meant, an elephant’s faithful one hundred percent!”

Director

More on Mary Jo Amani, Director: Mary Jo Amani has master degrees in Education and Latin American Studies (George Washington University) and has worked for over eighteen years in education in developing countries. Most recently, she worked for JHPIEGO in Mozambique, as the National Coordinator for HIV/AIDS Volunteer Testing and Counseling for INSIDA (HIV/AIDS Behavior and Prevalence Survey) conducted in 2009. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica in the early 1980’s, taught family literacy to inmates in the Washington DC prison system, helped develop children’s corners in libraries in rural Guatemala, started a NGO to promote reading in schools and communities in Nicaragua which continues today, and served as education coordinator of an inner-city education program for hundreds of the poorest children in Guatemala City.

Mary Jo founded the non-profit Libros para Niños (www.lpninos.com) in 1992 in Nicaragua to address a lack of quality reading materials for children and offer schools a viable, highly successful reading program based on making reading relevant and engaging. The organization continues today under Eduardo Baéz, a Nicaraguan with decades of experience in education programs. The Libros para Niños program is highly regarded as one of the leading voices in Central America on successful reading programs for elementary school age children and for community libraries. They have printed over two dozen titles of children’s books by well-known Nicaraguan authors and artists which are included in their programs. Libros para Niños has received funding from Save the Children, Unicef, the Norwegian government, and the Inter-American Development Bank, among others, as well as various grants from embassies around the world.

Early this year, Mary Jo started a small pilot project in a rural school in Mozambique, training student teachers at a private teacher training college to set up a mobile library after-school book club for hundreds of children. Based on the enthusiastic response of student teachers and children participating in the after-school book clubs, she is working on expanding the program on a large scale throughout the country.

Advisors

Celso Inguane; Maputo, Mozambique; Social Anthropologist. Celso helps with translations and advises us on local mores and culture as well as providing community liaison contacts when possible. 

Eduardo Baéz; Managua, Nicaragua; Director Libros para Niños:  Eduardo has worked with Libros para Niños for over fifteen years and provides us with the wealth of his knowledge and experience on grass roots community programs to encourage reading among children and adults.  Eduardo.baez@turbonett.com.ni; www.lpninos.com

Hans Johnson; St. Peter, Minnesota.  Hans is a fourteen-year-old techy and robot enthusiast. He is providing us with valuable technical support on the website.  TwoGuysandaLaptop.com