It took seven months and unshakeable perseverance and dedication, but the girl who said “We can make this happen. Just watch!” has made it happen. On October 25 a truck backed into the loading dock of the Killam Library and picked up 100 boxes of books bound for Kandahar University in Afghanistan. Books With Wings has taken off.

Anuja Siwakoti, the 3rd year Dal student who initiated the Dalhousie chapter of Books With Wings and did the lion’s share of the work, is tired but elated. “We collected, catalogued, labeled and packaged 50 boxes of medical and science textbooks and 50 boxes of chemistry and math textbooks,” she says proudly. “The pick-up truck will deliver our boxes to the Canadian Forces Unit in Montreal. From there, the Canadian Forces will send our boxes to Afghanistan whenever they have free space in their aircraft. “

The Dal Libraries supported the Books With Wings project by housing donation boxes and helping to promote the initiative (see our blog post of April 2010). We’re thrilled to have had the honor of being even a small part of Book With Wings at Dal, from the very beginning to the moment when the loaded truck left the Killam.

And now Anuja, who’s doing a challenging double major in Microbiology and Immunology and Social Anthropology, can get back to focusing on her studies. She has a message for the Dal community: “I would like to thank everyone for their contribution towards this collaborative effort. Your help to support education in the war-ravaged country of Afghanistan will be highly appreciated by students over there who have limited access to textbooks and other educational resources.”