Transforming the educational landscape by providing affordable and accessible

educational material to students across the globe.

Education as a Human Right

Education acts as a gateway for millions of young people around the world. It provides young people with the skills necessary to attain personal success and impact their community. At Textbooks for Change, we believe that access to affordable and accessible education should be a human right for all. Socioeconomic class should not dictate educational opportunities. Educated youth have the ability to tackle issues surrounding gender equality, literacy rates and youth employment in order to reduce poverty and foster peaceful societies.

Our Impact in East Africa

We recognize the high cost and low availability of textbooks and work to create savings and improved access for students, professors and post-secondary institutions. We provide substantial supplies of quality educational material that are accessible in campus libraries. We seek to improve the overall well-being of the entire campus community.

52,000 textbooks donated

3 campus partnerships

90,000 students with access

$39.50 CDN saved per textbook, per campus.

Stats How it Works 1.

2.

3.

4.

Scan textbooks in our fulfilment centre. Once we have about 25,000 textbooks, we are ready to ship a donation!

Match subject matter to the needs and courses offered by the partner institution.

Ship the textbooks from Hamilton, Ontario to a port in Mombasa, Kenya. This takes roughly 6 weeks.

2016 Goal: donate 100,000 textbooks to 10-15 partner campuses in Kenya. We have over 50,000 ready to donate now.

Access to textbooks. Resources are made available in the campus library for all to access.

Why East Africa? Why Textbooks?

How do Textbooks Benefit Partners?

What textbooks do you donate?

Under-funded & Under-resourced: The region has seen population and university enrolment rates increase drastically. Unfortunately, the government has been unable to keep up with this influx of students. Subsequently, institutions have become under-funded and under-resourced.

Testing Our Model: We are taking a strategic approach by focusing our efforts on partnership development, campus engagement, and improving the well-being of students specifically in East Africa. We have established networks, knowledge, and existing partnerships in the region.

Deficits in Current Materials: There is a significant deficit in the educational material available to these institutions. By supplying basic textbooks to the campus libraries we are directly enabling students to access quality learning material, and correspondingly lessening the chance that key resources are unavailable, damaged or checked out.

Interview with Kenyan Librarian: “Have you, this academic year, turned away students who needed access to textbooks?” “Very often. Of 10 students, about 4 might get their request.”

Enhanced Curriculum & Instruction: Textbooks are not only beneficial for the students, but also for professors as well. Professors are able to draw on a larger base of quality material for their course development which improves the quality of instruction and learning in the classroom.

Cost-Savings for Institutions: The post-secondary textbook industry in East Africa is very small. Most post-secondary institutions have to purchase textbooks at high prices from the UK, less durable textbooks from India, or a very small number of locally printed/published textbooks. By receiving Textbooks for Change donations, institutions retain more funds to invest in other programs to support the educational experience of students.

Relevant Course Material: Textbooks are sorted in our fulfilment center and divided into subject categories. Based on our ongoing insight, feedback, and analysis, we have identified the following textbooks to be of high need for donations:

• Medicine, nursing, and sciences • Business, accounting, finance, economics, and math • Teaching and childhood development • Computer science and programming • Hospitality, tourism and conservation • Agriculture, ecology, forestry, and animals • Law and criminology, social sciences and research

methods

Limitations of Digital Material: Universities currently have access to e-resources, but internet connectivity, insufficient hardware and student preferences for print material mean that adoption has been slow.

What People Are Saying“We welcome such an initiative because it means that it’s going to raise the profile of the university, it’s going to promote a better reading culture among our students. You cannot be a leader unless you read.” William Nyariki Deputy Dean of Students Jomo Kenyatta University, Kenya

“On behalf of Moi University, I wish to sincerely appreciate the Textbooks for Change organization for the change you've brought in our University Library! Your donation of books has changed our studies as the student to book ratio has drastically improved!” Gabriel Simiyu MBA Candidate Moi University, Kenya

“I have to thank everybody who sent these books to us because they are very much valuable. Frankly speaking, 90% plus of the books cannot be found here. So you understand what it means to the people here.” Wubshet Bekalu, PhD Dean - School of Commerce Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

Campus Ambassador Program Providing meaningful employment for students on Kenyan campuses.

Looking Ahead

East-African Operations Building our presence and partnerships to improve and implement our model.

Curriculum-Focused Fine-tuning our sorting & distribution process based on the needs of campus partners.

Digital Education Testing & developing a digital model to improve affordability and accessibility.

Cynthia 2nd Year - Criminology Maasai Mara University

Connect with us

@Textbooks4C

www.textbooksforchange.com

Textbooks for Change

Work with us"Overall my experience working with Textbooks for Change has been fantastic. I receive regular updates about their work and I share these with all our staff at the library.  It’s a nice reminder that the simple act of hosting a drop box, which requires little to no effort on our part, can have a significant impact."

Denise Smith Education Liaison Librarian McMaster University OCULA Board of Directors