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Student Life

Amnesty International targets illiteracy with upcoming book drive

Amnesty International at USF hopes to have a better result at its April book drive after collecting 450 books from professors and students last semester.

Amnesty International is a global organization that fights for the rights of all human beings. They partner with Better World Books to bring literature to less fortunate communities around the world.

“I don’t know if we can ever fully eliminate illiteracy because the world is such a broken place,” said Emily Tonjes, president of Amnesty International at USF. “This book drive is a way to connect a global initiative to a local level by doing something where every person can participate.”

In order to increase the donations this semester, Amnesty is getting the word out by posting flyers at local bookstores like Gray’s and Bookholders. The club has high hopes of getting USF more involved with the event.

“We hope that book intakes this semester will surpass those of last semester, and that’s going to be a challenge for us,” said Brittany Kurtright, secretary of Amnesty at USF.

Better World Books collects all types of books from more than 1,800 universities through book drives and more than 2,000 libraries and thrift stores.

“I want it to become a tradition for not just our organization but also for the school,” said Valerie Garcia, Amnesty at USF’s Financial Officer. “It’s not just about human rights or advocacy, it’s about education. [It is] something that we all have here at USF, and many take for granted.”

Better World Books sells the books and shares a portion of the profits with the organization that donates, and another portion with non-profit organizations that help with regional, national, and international literacy programs. Any books that are unsuitable for purchase are either donated to one of the non-profit organizations or recycled.

Discussion

One Response to “Amnesty International targets illiteracy with upcoming book drive”

  1. Awesome initiative!! GO AMNESTY!

    Posted by Werica | February 16, 2012, 1:55 pm
    Reply to this comment

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