Sweet and Maxwell donate textbooks to Books for Africa charity
Sweet and Maxwell recently donated approximately 650 books to the Books for Africa charity, with which Thomson Reuters has held a longstanding partnership. The textbooks donated by Sweet and Maxwell include leading titles such as Archbold, McGregor on Damages, White Book and a number of Nutshells and City and Finance Practitioner’s Guide titles.
The Books for Africa charity collects and ships books to schools and libraries in Africa. The charity remains the largest shipper of donated text and library books to the African continent and has shipped in excess of 31 million books to 49 different countries since 1988.
To date, Thomson Reuters has donated books and entire law libraries to 74 law schools, bar associations, governments, human rights organisations and other institutions in 20 different countries across the continent. Support from Thomson Reuters has been global in nature, with titles donated from its legal businesses in the US, the UK and Brazil, with books in both English and Portuguese and plans to begin donating French-language texts through its legal publishing business in Canada, Carswell.
Thomson Reuters also plans to provide up to ten law libraries a year, building on its previous commitments, and has agreed to contribute to the financing of the transportation of texts to Africa by sponsoring one Books for Africa shipping container a year.
“Books and education are essential to society, and they provide the foundation for both a functioning economy and the rule of law,” said Sharon Sayles Belton, vice president of Community Affairs and Government Relations for Thomson Reuters. “Our work with Books For Africa helps millions on the African continent see the world, and their own potential, in entirely different ways. It’s an honor to be a part of such important work.”
In September 2008, Books for Africa launched a law book programme; ‘The Jack Mason Law & Democracy Initiative’, which provides legal texts for African law schools, bar associations and other legal entities. Thomson Reuters supported the initiative at the outset and is proud to play a part in providing the African legal community with the resources they need to understand and practice the law. The initiative is co-chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former US Vice President Walter Mondale.
