Highlights of 1998
- A gala dinner in Washington in March 1998 marked the official opening of the Michael W. Christian Program for Africa. This book donation program honors the memory of a former Sabre director and supporter of African education and development. In 1997 and 1998, container shipments were sent to Ghana, Liberia, Tanzania, and Zambia, and shipments were planned for the first half of 1999 to Angola, Ghana, and South Africa. New country programs explored during the year included Algeria, Kenya, and Somalia. A nine-member Africa Advisory Committee is providing valuable help in developing the program.
- The Peace Corps signed a cooperative agreement with Sabre for the supply of educational materials to Peace Corps projects around the world. During the first year, Sabre will provide the equivalent of five 40-foot sea containers (more than 100,000 books in all) in response to increasing requests from Peace Corps Volunteers for new books, CD-ROMs, and early learning materials.
- Sabre’s Information Technology Training Center in Cambridge, in operation since mid-year,
was introduced to a wide circle of Sabre friends and the media at an open house in
November 1998. The IT Workshops, which hosted trainees and interns from half a dozen
countries before year-end, are customized to the level, interests, and needs of each
participant.
Former Ambassador Smith Hempstone, Sabre Africa adviser Kathaleen F. Hempstone, and Anne D. Neal at the Michael W. Christian dinner.
On behalf of Sabre, Tania Vitvitsky receives an award for assisting learning-disabled children in St. Lucia from Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan. - The book donation program shipped more than 370,000 new books worth $11.5 million to recipients in fifteen countries, with valuable assistance from the United States Information Agency and USAID’s Ocean Freight Reimbursement program.
- The largest special collection in Sabre’s history, a library of some 50,000 volumes bequeathed by a Michigan collector of Ukrainian descent, was packed in Detroit by volunteers from Ann Arbor and shipped in two containers to the Ivan Franko Lviv State University Library in October.
- In two other special projects, the Dusky Foundation of Boston provided funding for a shipment of children’s books to Bosnia, and the Croatian communities of North America contributed to the acquisition of materials for the Central Croatian Law Library at the University of Zagreb.