Books with Wings

Books With Wings is a philanthropic educational organisation, based at the University of Manitoba, Canada.^[1] It is a collaborative project between Canadian and American students and their counterparts in Afghanistan to provide books for universities throughout Afghanistan. A United Kingdom Chapter was formed in 2015.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Books With Wings

Official logo
Type	Philanthropic, non-profit, non-governmental organisation
Purpose	Provision of books for students in Afghanistan
Headquarters	University of Manitoba, Canada
Location	Afghanistan, Canada, United Kingdom, United States
Founder	Richard Gordon
Website	Official website (archived)

History

The organisation was founded by Dr. Richard (Dick) Gordon, a professor of radiology at the University of Manitoba.^[5][6][7] The program began as a class project at the university's medical school, and the organization began shipping books to Afghanistan in 2001.^[6]

Books sent to Afghanistan were originally mainly medical and science textbooks, but the range later expanded to include material covering multiple disciplines such as accounting, business, computer science, education, engineering, English, history, law, literature, mathematics, medicine, midwifery, public health and science.^[2][3]

Sally Armstrong provided critical support to Books With Wings, and devoted half a chapter of one of her books to it.^[8]

Shipment of most books was via Canadian Armed Forces and, except for one shipment of 32,000 books by The Idries Shah Foundation distributed by Books With Wings, shipments ceased when they withdrew from Afghanistan. According to founder, Richard Gordon, Books With Wings is currently inactive because they no longer have any mechanism to transport books.^[9][10]

References

1. Staff. "Books With Wings: We get books to Afghanistan". Books With Wings. Archived from the original on 2015-06-25. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
2. Staff (2010). "Books With Wings". University of Manitoba Faculty of Health Sciences, College of Medicine. Archived from the original on 2015-06-25. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
3. Duncan, Katie (24 June 2015). "Fulham supper club raises a glass to universities in Afghanistan". South West Londoner. Archived from the original on 2015-06-25. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
4. Ahmad, Yusra (2004). "Books with Wings Project Set to Soar From Toronto to Gul Bahar" (PDF). University of Toronto Medical Journal (pdf). 82 (1). University of Toronto: 55. ISSN 1913-5440. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2017. Retrieved 2015-06-28.
5. Ostrovsky Osmond, Deborah (2007). "Manitoba MDs rebuild Afghan medical libraries". National Review of Medicine. 4 (19). Archived from the original on 2015-06-28. Retrieved 2015-06-28.
6. Smithers, Amy (22 March 2005). "Med-book drive takes flight". The Varsity. University of Toronto students. Archived from the original on 2015-06-28. Retrieved 2015-06-28.
7. Staff. "About Books With Wings". Books With Wings. Archived from the original on 2015-06-25. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
8. Armstrong, Sally (2008). Bitter Roots Tender Shoots: The Uncertain Fate Of Afghanistan's Women. Toronto: Viking Canada. ISBN 978-0670068685.
9. Yousafzai, M Afghanistan: 32,000 books were distributed for free to schools, universities, and public libraries Indries Shah Foundation 2015, accessed Oct 24, 2018
10. Shah, I ISF book donation to Afghanistan Dec 22, 2014

External links

• Official website (now archived)
• Official Facebook group