Book by Book

 JBFC launched its Book by Book campaign back in April of this year in order to begin the process of stocking our new library.

Dollars are being donated, books are starting to come in, and nearly 70 summer guests have carried pounds and pounds of books over to Tanzania in their checked luggage.

Several of our artistically talented guests have helped transform a room into a brightly decorated home for reading and learning.

Thanks to your generosity our library has gone from virtually non-existent to more than 1,600 novels and children’s books.

Now, as you can see through the pictures, we have a great beginning of a library! But, what is most exciting about these books is how they are helping JBFC achieve our mission. Literacy in Tanzania hovers around 68% and is on the decline. But, here at JBFC, in our little corner of Tanzania called Kitongo, the love for books and reading is alive and well.

Every week, each class in both our primary and secondary schools visits the library once or twice for a little more than an hour. After school, our summer guests adopted reading buddies, spending quality time reading with one of our residential girls several times a week.


But, the fun doesn’t stop there. Thanks to volunteers from this summer, we were able to start a catalog system and begin checking these books out to our students, teachers and staff. In less than three months, more than 100 books have been checked out (and returned!) to JBFC’s library.

While we still need your help to achieve our goal of 10,000+ books on our campus, this is a much more successful start than any of us could have dreamed of. So, THANK YOU!

And, most importantly, you can see how important this campaign has been for our school by the smiling faces of our students as they march over to the library in their single file line for reading time! Please check out our guidelines, if you’re interested in donating dollars or books to JBFC’s Book by Book campaign. Help us continue to break down barriers to literacy, one book at a time.

 Chris Gates is the Founder and Executive Director of JBFC.