Short Hills Siblings Create 12 Libraries For African Children

SHORT HILLS, NJ - Sajni Shah, 12, and Sahil Shah, 15, earned the 2018 Compassion in Action Award for their contribution to African literacy.

This international honor is awarded annually by the African Library Project to book drive organizers and Africans that have made an extraordinary contribution to African literacy, organizers said.

Since 2013, Sajni and Sahil have led the efforts in their community to contribute over 12,000 children’s books that have become 12 small libraries in Ghana, Botswana, Lesotho, and Malawi.

According to officials, Sahil, at age 8, and Sajni, at age 5, were saddened to learn that many children in the world don’t have access to libraries and books to read. Their search to do something about it ended with the African Library Project.

Their first successful book drive in 2012 to collect 1000 children’s books changed their lives. Now annual book drives have become a family tradition. They set up collection bins at the YMCA, taekwondo school and other places where the children are active. Friends and family donate books and money to help ship them. The Shah siblings also raise money to cover the shipping costs through lemonade stands and selling their unused toys, clothes and furniture at garage sales.

Sajni and Sahil said they plan to continue to do book drives to celebrate their birthdays each year.

“I am happy to see that through my book drives many children are getting an opportunity to read books and learn by reading books,” Sahil said.

Sajni said she loves reading books.

"And when I came to know that many children do not have books to read in some parts of the world I became very sad," she said. "I wanted to do something to help spread literacy. It has been a very satisfying task each year when I do these book drives.”

The African Library Project is a San Francisco Bay Area-based grassroots nonprofit that coordinates book drives throughout the US and southern Canada to start and improve small libraries in sub-Saharan Africa. Since 2005, the organization has partnered with African NGOs and governments to start or improve 2,541 libraries in 12 countries, shipping over 2.5 million books. To learn more, visit: www.africanlibraryproject.org.

(Photo courtesy of Sahil Shah)

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