Two NIU professors are asking professors and departments to donate used textbooks and research journals to a university in Kenya.
Jane Rose Njue, from NIU’s School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences, and Moses Mutuku, from the Department of Teaching and Learning, are collecting the books to ship to Kenyatta University. Kenyatta’s professors and students, who cannot afford to buy text books often and who do not have much access to journals, will find great value in the donation.
Donations are needed quickly, however: Olive Mugenda, chancellor of Kenyatta University, will visit NIU next week from Monday, Aug. 11, through Wednesday, Aug. 13.
“It would be good for her to be presented with books that NIU community has donated,” Njue said. “Kenyatta University pays for the shipment of books.”
FCNS Chair Laura Smart is providing space to store the books before they are transported Aug. 13. Donations can be taken to Wirtz 122.
NIU faculty members have collaborated in recent years with colleagues from Iowa State University, the University of Minnesota and Hamline University to donate books to Kenya through Books for Africa.
Based in St. Paul, Minn., the non-profit organization established in 1988 is the largest shipper of donated books to African countries.
The organization believes that the greatest equalizer is to give individuals access to an education whether self taught or in a school to all people. Its staff works with organizations throughout Africa and the United States to end the country’s “book famine” by transporting more books and educational materials to areas in need.
After 27 years on the job, Leroy Mitchell will retire as director of the CHANCE program.
All are welcome to an open house celebration from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28, in the Duke Ellington Ballroom of the Holmes Student Center.