By encouraging children and parents who attend our events to donate a book about science, and by working closely with schools and universities, we are able to collect and ship books to locations around the world that are in desperate need for learning materials.

We now send books around the world to Cameroon, India, Greece and we're looking to send more to South Africa, Uganda and Morocco. Scroll down to learn more about our story, our libraries and how you can contribute...

Our Story

This project all began with the generous donations of English and French books - as well as several educational toys - at Greenlight for girls events around the world. Soon this became an initiative whose goal was to inspire a child to be curious and start thinking about science even in the most impoverished areas.  This was truly a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate that science is everywhere in everything we do. It also enabled the creation of bridges in our international community, as the book exchange provides a learning experience for both the donor and the recipient in another part of the world.  By donating books to their peers living in less developed countries there is benefit on both sides of the world.

It is June 2012 that the first batch of books was sent to Cameroon by a passionate group of greenlight for girl’s volunteers in Brussels in partnership with Boston University Brussels, while another group in the United States sent books and educational toys to India. 

At everyone of our events today, the Girls are encouraged to bring a book that they read (or would like to read) and that they think would be meaningful to a girl their age in the developing world.  They then make inscriptions in the books, such as, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams, ” in order to give the science books a personal and encouraging touch.

But no need to be a Greenlight Girl to donate a book... Other generous book donors include the library of the International School of Brussels, Boston University Brussels and many private individuals. Read ahead to learn more about how you could too!

We then try our best to send these personalized books to our science libraries that are now located in Europe, Asia and Africa (see details below). This is when you come in. We are constantly raising funds to make the shipping possible as the donated books are useless unless they get sent to their final destination. Click here to make a direct donation!

Where are the libraries?

As we develop partnerships in various parts of the world, we identify library needs for children.  At this moment, we have partners in the Cameroon, in India, in Senegal, in South Africa and in Greece who work with orphanages and educating children in less-advantaged communities.  For these type of organisations, their “science library” is a central room in their school or facility in which all the children can borrow books when needed. We are already looking to expand to Uganda and Morocco but if you have a potential partner who could benefit from a science library, please let us know.

What are “science” books?

Remember – science is everywhere!  Consider children of all ages and from different parts of the world – what could science mean to them?  It’s the land of discovery, curiosity and fun.  Any book that engages a child to the wonders of science, math, engineering and technology – and any related field – is a gift that they will treasure.  If you need ideas, let us know!

Here is a link of some examples of titles of books that we’ve just sent: Book List