Books for Development

Books for Development helps alleviate the book famine that prevents children and adults in many developing countries from learning to read. This is an ALL-VOLUNTEER program that gathers donated books, uses volunteers to sort them and then ships these books to poor countries to build libraries through public donations. We promote good stewardship by using free labor and donated books that might otherwise be left in a landfill. The organization also provides instruction and on-going training for the care and development of these libraries which are maintained by the local communities in which they are a source of great pride.

This project was initiated by Mark Cotham as a mission of Chapelwood Methodist Church in Houston in 2009. In January of 2013 it was established as an independent nonprofit charitable organization which then operated as a building partner with The Houston Food Bank at 535 Portwall St. Houston, Texas. We are now in our own warehouse located in EaDo at 3709 Polk St., Houston, TX  77003.