Non-profit media organizations call on newsrooms to donate spare books to help indigenous reporters hone their craft.
November 16, 2009. (St. Paul, Minn) NewLiberian.com and The Niapele Project are calling on American newsrooms to donate spare books and magazines for a “Journalists’ Book Drive” to benefit reporters in Liberia.
A major challenge for journalists in post-conflict nations is that examples of great writing aren’t available. Even those books that do show up in bookstores are far outside what the average African journalist can afford. As a result, local reporters have trouble keeping up with contemporary conventions and trends, further encouraging a cycle in which indigenous reportage is edged out by Western-educated foreign correspondents.
“Books are very expensive in Liberia and some reporters can’t even afford a day’s meal, let alone buy journalism books,” NewLiberian.com editor Sematics King Jr. says. “Therefore, books will really be an added advantage to many Liberian journalists who did not get the opportunity to study journalism at all in college.”
This holiday season, NewLiberian.com is asking for the following donations:
- Spare journalism texts: From ethics manuals to AP stylebooks, anything that would serve as a text for reporters looking to hone their craft.
- Examples of great journalism: Whether this is your press club’s annual Best Writing compendium or the review copy of the latest Eric Schlosser or Naomi Klein.
- Any text related to developing world or African issues.
- News magazines from the last three months. (Since it may take several weeks or months for this shipment to reach Liberia, anything older would be too outdated by the time it gets there.)
Books may be mailed to (please get them in the mail by Dec. 31):
Dave Maass
San Diego CityBeat
3047 University Ave., Suite 202
San Diego, CA 92104
“Books on journalism will be a great help to Liberian journalists especially now that Liberia is mending its broken pieces,” King says. “If democracy is to thrive in Liberia, it will largely depend on how professional Liberian journalists can be, and this will depend on how knowledgeable they become of the basics of the profession.”
All donations will be distributed to indigenous journalists and bloggers in Liberia with the help of Ceasefire Liberia and Journalists for Human Rights.
NewLiberian.com is a non-profit human-rights news site incorporated in Minnesota. Founded by Liberian journalist-in-exile and World Press Institute fellow Semantics King Jr and alternative newsweekly reporter Dave Maass, the site is a spin-off of The Vision, a newspaper originally serving the Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana. In 2009, NewLiberian.com signed a partnership with The Niapele Project, a US-based non-governmental organization that empowers vulnerable children through the development of community-based initiatives in Liberia.
For more information visit newliberian.com and theniapeleproject.org.
Media Contacts:
Semantics King Jr, NewLiberian.com: 612-607-4141, editor@newliberian.com
Dave Maass, NewLiberian.com, San Diego CityBeat: 210-722-9583, d.maass@gmail.com
Penelope Chester, The Niapele Project: : +231 06 292168, penelope@theniapeleproject.org
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Dear Sirs, I came across your appeal for journalism books today and thought that because your organization and mine both have the same mission of providing books for Liberia you might want to pick up our story and give us your help.
Below I copied a letter I sent yesterday via the US postal service to President Sirleaf. I think the letter will reach her office by the end of November. As a follow up to this letter, beginning 12/1/09 my plan is to try and get media support by having our people write emails to various news organizations in an effort to put pressure on the Port to release our container of mostly books immediately and without further charges.
You are the first new media I have contacted. My hope is that you will write a story and that allafrica.com will pick it up. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Sincerely,
Jenna Barnett, RN, MS
Dear President Johnson Sirleaf,
I am writing you in my position on the Board of Directors of African Children’s Libraries. Our organization sent a container to Liberia earlier this year. Since June 2009 the container has been held in the Port of Monrovia. I am asking you to intervene to get this container released immediately.
In addition to books, the container has boxes of clothes for Jahzjet Children’s Outreach Mission. These boxes are very clearly identified on the outside of each box. I collected these clothes with the help of a local Girl Scout Troop for the children I met at this orphanage in Paynesville when I was in Liberia as part of a humanitarian medical mission with Medical Teams International in 2004 and 2005.
The inclusion of these boxes in the container of mostly books is one reason the Port held up the container’s release. All the cargo has now been cleared as non-profit use. Now the Port wants to charge$8000 for storing the container while they took the four months to decide that the clothes were really going to orphans. These charges seem unreasonable as the boxes are clearly identified on the outside of each box and the orphanage is an established charity that has been operating in Paynesville for many years.
The container also carries two donated mammogram machines: One for the Monrovia area through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the other is going to Phebe Hospital. I don’t believe there are any other mammogram machines in the country. The doctors plan to send an x-ray technician to Ghana for training once they have the machines and the manuals. The machines are analog not digital, which is why they became available.
Every week one or two people ask me “What’s happening with the books,” or “Have the children at the orphanage gotten the clothes yet?” It was a community effort to send the container to Liberia. It was a way for local Portland children and their parents to learn about Liberia. Please President Sirleaf, give both my community and your community the gift they deserve. Get the Port to release the African Children’s Library container without further delay and without further charges.
Thank you for your help.
Sincerely,
Jenna Barnett, RN, MS
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You you should change the blog title NewLiberian.com Launches Journalists Book Drive | NewLiberian.com to more specific for your subject you make. I enjoyed the blog post still.