Many people ask me why I am very passionate about the famine of books in Africa and what groups like Books for Africa are doing to end that famine. And my simple answer is that books are the window to the world.
 
I was born in a rural village in northeastern Ethiopia. Our home was a one-room grass-covered hut that we shared with the farm and domestic animals at one corner, and an open fireplace at the center of the room.

That setting is still true in many parts of Africa that are lacking economic development.

In few months, I will be 48 years old. Yet to this day, there is no electricity and running water in the village where I was born. The first elementary school was built a few years ago. And thanks to Books for Africa, that village school was able to receive some books in 2006.

So how did I get here from that environment against all odds?

Grandmother was key

When I was 2 years old, my maternal grandmother decided that it was time for her daughter to be in the city, and without much publicity she moved me and my mom to a larger town where schooling was available.

I went to a Catholic preschool to hold a book for the first time in my life. That opened the road for elementary and secondary public school education.

Although I was a student, there were no textbooks or any extra reading materials that the schoolchildren in Europe and the United States take for granted.

I was the lucky one, because I also had a grandma who saw my thirst for reading and who allowed me to read her prayer book made of goat skin, which was the only book in the household. She was also persistent in keeping scrap papers of newspapers or magazine pages that came from shops whenever she went to the market to buy something.

My grandmother used to keep all those papers until I read them before she took them to start her daily cooking fire. Throughout my elementary and secondary education, I saw few stenciled textbooks that were given in makeshift fashion, usually one book to a minimum of four to six kids. While that was still better than nothing, the management of sharing the books was left for the kids to figure out, and we always fought over who should have the books over the weekend.

No textbooks at school
During my school life textbooks were not available, and our teachers would write on the worn-out blackboards. Students had to catch up to copy until the bell rang for the next teacher or lose the daily notes. This is stark reality and a fact of life for millions of African children today.

I read the many scrap papers before they were burned in the cooking fire. One day in 1977, I found a special piece that I call the "miracle of the scrap paper." It was a magazine page with a black and white photograph of the United Nations building in New York. It came from the market. As I saw the picture of the beautiful building, I got curious more than ever, and looked at it in a hurry. And I read what was written about it.

Usually my grandma was waiting to get back the papers for her fire, and I had to surrender them after reading. This time I held the paper with the picture, much to my grandma's dismay. We made an agreement that I could keep the photo and she could take the rest of the papers. So I cut it out by hand and kept it with me to this day.

The next day I went to the only library in town and read about the UN and the Organization of African Unity in the encyclopedia. There I promised myself that if I get education, and work hard I can also work in THESE BUILDINGS. I later worked for the U.N. and UNICEF in Ethiopia.

Brothers' education stopped at 4th grade
Back in my village my father was remarried and I have two brothers who were unable to learn past than fourth grade.

Books are the window to the world, and that is why Books for Africa ships millions of donated textbooks to schools and libraries throughout Africa, so the millions of African children may see the world through books, get inspired and explore their potential!

On Feb. 13, 2002, I was naturalized as a United States citizen. I received a letter signed by then-President George W. Bush welcoming me as the new United States citizen, with its privileges and responsibilities. One paragraph in that letter caught my attention more than the excitement of holding the American passport.

It says, "Americans are united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, and that no insignificant person was ever born."

My brothers did not get the chance they deserve; they are not insignificant persons either. They are my brothers. Only the opportunity to hold a book set us apart.

If the miracle of the scrap of paper has brought me this far, can you imagine what books can do for the unfortunate millions of African children?

Groups like Books for Africa can make all the difference in the lives of the children of the continent. And they represent the grandest ideals of America: Everybody deserves a chance, and no insignificant person was ever born.

Asratie Teferra is a board member of Books for Africa, which is based in St. Paul. He is a former U.N. World Food Program and UNICEF staff member in Ethiopia, and now works for Verizon Corp. as a trade specialist in the International Supply Chain Services. He lives in Lovettsville, Va. This piece is adapted from a talk he gave at a recent Books for Africa event in St. Paul.