Contact: Marta Baziuk, Sabre Foundation (617) 868-3510; Rae Mims, Peace Corps (617) 565-5541

October 3, 1996

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

[Cambridge, Mass.] The Peace Corps, and Sabre Foundation, the largest donor of English-language materials to the former Eastern Bloc, launch a shipment of 10,000 books to Romania on Friday, October 4 from Sabre's warehouse in Clinton, Mass.

The initiative is a follow-up to First Lady Hillary Clinton's visit to Romania earlier this year where she visited several hospitals, schools and children's organizations. While there, Mrs. Clinton noticed the lack of educational materials for children. Upon her return, she enlisted the aid of the Sabre Foundation and Peace Corps to send the twenty-foot container that leaves this month.

In Romania, the Peace Corps will be working with local organizations, such as the Civil Society Development Foundation, to distribute these much needed educational materials. The shipment will contain mostly children's books and elementary school materials donated by the publishers McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster and World Book.

Sabre has distributed nearly three million books valued at more than $60 million over the past ten years. It is distinctive in book donation work in emphasizing new books in current editions and in using the Internet to allow recipients to select titles and quantities prior to shipment. More than 200 U.S. and European publishers have donated materials for distribution through Sabre.

The Peace Corps, an independent agency of the federal government, has approximately 6,500 volunteers serving 90 countries in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the newly independent states of Eastern Europe.