Located in the third basement of the World Bank’s “J” Building, the Book Project has shipped over three million books to some 100 countries over a period of nearly four decades. These books – used and surplus textbooks, library books, atlases, dictionaries – were, in turn, donated to the Project by school districts and private schools in the metropolitan DC area, and by private donors. The program has always been grateful for these contributions, without which it would have ceased to exist.

It all began in 1982 when two visionaries – Peggy Clausen, the wife of the World Bank’s President and Babs Knox, the wife of the Bank’s Vice President of the Africa Region – were invited to inaugurate a library in Lagos, Nigeria. They were surprised to find that the library had empty shelves and even more, shocked and saddened to note that the 350 children at the SOS Village had never seen toys or books.

They decided to do something about it.

Back in Washington, they called upon the spouses of Bank staff to collect as many books as they could, to be sent to schools and institutions in less fortunate countries. Soon books began to pour in and the Book Project incorporated in the District of Columbia as a tax-exempt organization with a Board of Directors and Babs Knox as its first President in July 1983. With a contribution of $ 150.00 from the President of the World Bank Volunteers Services (WBVS, the earlier version of WBFN), and a donation of $ 15,000.00 from the Vice President of External Affairs, the first shipment of 750 books was packed in 15 cartons and airlifted by British Caledonian Airways free of charge.

With the help of other World Bank spouses the project expanded rapidly. Bank staff at resident missions helped to store books in their living rooms, under stairwells and even under beds in their homes. Some volunteered to distribute the books out of their cars.

The first volunteers in Washington worked in the old “N” Building boiler room, expanding to the Bank’s warehouse in Springfield, Virginia. In 1987 the work was moved to the Bank’s new warehouse in Laurel, Maryland, where it remained until 1995. The next year it moved to its present location, the Bank’s “J” Building.

Thirty-plus years later, three or four large shipments (either a 20’ or 40’ container) are sent overseas annually, as well as many small shipments, from four boxes to 24, are prepared for private individuals or organizations.

What started in a small way has evolved into a major project with continued support from loyal donors, the World Bank’s Global Corporate Solutions which is responsible for the logistics – providing warehouse, office and packing space, staff to move skids of books between the warehouse, the loading dock, the packing room, and onwards to the port for shipping, and the actual shipping of the containers from port to country port of entry (no more free airlifts!) – and the work of its all-volunteer staff which is a mix of Bank spouses, partners, retirees, and Bank staff members’ children 16 years old and older during their school breaks.