BREAKING THE CYCLE OF POVERTY THROUGH LITERACY AND EDUCATION . . . ONE BOOK AT A TIME.

For the second year in a row, members of Northeast Mississippi Community College’s Iota Zeta chapter of Phi Theta Kappa international honor society spent finals week in May collecting approximately 25 heaping boxes of textbooks to donate to students in Africa - where up to six students currently share one textbook. Phi Theta Kappa members asked students who had textbooks they were unable to sell back to the college bookstore to donate them to the project. Rusty Whitten (l)of Corinth, Phi Theta Kappa 2006-2007 president and Joel Barron of New Site, 2007-08 co-president, pack up the books for shipping.

The Books for Africa organization, which has shipped more than 15 million books to 27 countries in Africa since 1988, set a recent goal of donating 1.15 million books in a year. With the high cost of shipping - about $9,500 or 38 cents per book - the organization needed help with its funding. Northeast teamed up with Better World Books, which helps fund Books for Africa and other non-profit literary organizations. Better World Books assists Books for Africa by donating the books directly to the organization or selling the collected books online to fund the shipping efforts. If the books are in poor condition, Better World Books recycles them.

Better World Books was started in 2003 by three University of Notre Damestudents looking for an alternative to throwing out their used textbooks. To date the group has raised more than $1.3 million for non-profit organizations focused on literacy and education, including $900,000 for Books for Africa. Its efforts have saved more than 5 million pounds of books from ending up in landfills.

Founded in 1918, Phi Theta Kappa is an international honor society composed of 1100 chapters at colleges in the United States and Canada. International headquarters for the organization are located in Jackson, Miss. PTK seeks to foster the development of leadership and service, to provide an intellectual climate for the exchange of ideas, and to encourage the establishment of scholarships for advanced education. Approximately 48,000 new members are initiated each year. Recognized by the American Association of Community Colleges, Phi Theta Kappa is the official honor society of two-year colleges. Northeast’s Iota Zeta chapter is a “Five Star” chapter, the highest rating given any chapter.