The African Library Project (ALP) changes lives book by book by starting libraries in rural Africa. Our grassroots approach mobilizes U.S. volunteers, young and old, to organize book drives and ship books to a partner library in Africa. Our method makes a concrete and personal difference for children and adults on both continents.

We work with our African partners to create small sustainable libraries in Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Swaziland. Our model provides many benefits for the U.S. too, including greater knowledge of Africa, leadership opportunities for young Americans, recycling of books, and many books donated to American organizations (those not appropriate for Africa). Our model is scalable and, while already making a significant difference, it has the potential to do much more.

We have helped develop over 1700 libraries in 10 years!

An operations manager is responsible for managing individual shipping containers of books for one of our partner countries. The manager matches our volunteer book drive organizers (BDOs) in the US with specific libraries in the partner country.   This volunteer would work with BDOs by email and/or by phone to answer questions, give ideas and help them shape the educational component of their book drives. They are responsible for entering information into our Salesforce database, sending instructions and other information at various points during the drives, and are generally available to help BDOs through the process.  We send 7 containers per year - this position would be responsible for 2-3 of these containers. This job can be done from your home and/or computer.  Each container takes 3-4 months from the time we get library applications until the container is shipped.  During the first three months of active time on the container, you would need to spend about 6 hours a week and during the last month prior to shipment, you would need to spend 10 hours/week.  You can do the work at any time that is convenient for you, but we ask that you respond to emails within 24-48 hours, so ideally you have at least one hour to spend on your volunteering each day. We do have someone available as back-up if you are traveling. We are looking for a minimum one year commitment.

Basic data entry, Word, and Excel computer skills. We will train you in how to operate the database (1-2 hrs.). We are looking for someone who is detail-oriented, patient, and supportive and encouraging of our volunteers. This position does not require working from Portola Valley, CA, but does require training in-person in the Bay Area.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.