West Columbia, SC (WLTX) - A local nonprofit group is sending $15,000 textbooks half way around the globe.
Charity Textbooks says they have helped 32 developing countries. Now, the group in West Columbia hopes you will help them give the gift of an education to Togo, West Africa.
Tuesday, Charity Textbooks spent the day packing up a container of recycled toys and thousands of textbooks. They'll be shipped out of Charleston.
Robert Ballington, a former construction worker who started the nonprofit group eight years ago, says it's designed to recycle textbooks and send them to countries that need them. He and his family run the group.
"I do this cause for my kids, for one, I like for them to see if you give you get back," Ballington says. "Some of these letters that we get back are just heartbreaking." The container is being sent specifically to an orphanage of 1,800 adults and children in Togo.
Ballington says he learns a lesson every time he gives. "I'm learning that we take for granted these books that we are just discarding," he says. "If one kid out of the 1,800 learns to become a doctor and help the other 1,799, that's worthwhile."
He says the value of appreciating what you have is a generational gift.
His son Jesse says, "Every time we do something like this or send a box out, I get a good feeling inside. Because I know I have helped at least one kid over there--somewhere that's not near us--and I probably won't even know their name, but I'm helping them."
The containers cost between $5 to $9,000. Ballington says he needs corporate donations to pick up the tab because his nonprofit doesn't have the money. They also want to recruit schools including colleges and universities to donate their used textbooks instead of discarding them.
You can donate by logging on the Charity Textbooks website or calling (877) 988-8481.
