New Library in Wekin, Ethiopia Has Minnesota Roots
Minnesotans Wyn and聽Sunny Ray share a deep connection with Ethiopia. In 1974 Sunny worked as a famine relief volunteer in the remote village of Wekin, Ethiopia;聽聽in 2008, the couple returned to the community and found them struggling with water and infrastructure challenges. In addition to these pressing issues, an聽area of particular concern for the village聽was the school 鈥渓ibrary,鈥� which contained only about 50 English books.聽聽In 2013, the Wekin Book Project was born to help put high-quality books and learning materials in the hands of local聽students and the聽community.聽The Rays' personal contributions, along with generous support from friends, family, local libraries (and even a book drive at church!) netted tens of thousands of books. 
聽These groups also raised funds to cover customs costs to enter Ethiopia, 聽trucking expenses聽from the port, through the capital, to Wekin, and funded聽the construction of聽a cement pad for the new library.
BFA staff helped the Rays secure and purchase a nearly new cargo container that stayed at the delivery site. Upon the arrival of the cargo container, it was discovered that the weight was too much for unloading it off the truck. Local residents volunteered and unloaded the container. The government helped locate a small crane to unload the empty container. 聽Then all the books were then reloaded by hand until facilities were ready to accept them. 聽
The Rays arrived in Wekin a few weeks later to celebrate the groundbreaking for the new library building. 聽Attending the ceremony were 3,000 villagers from the local community, as well as His Excellency, Ato Aleleegn Mulalen, North Gondar Zone, Chief Administrator (the highest ranking official in Gondar Province).
Everyone had gathered to celebrate the delivery of books for this remote village and the surrounding region (the official was previously unaware that the tiny village of Wekin even existed!). In addition to the new library, the village mayor was able to petition the official to secure a transformer, providing the village with a reliable source of聽electricity; this serendipitous connection made this already exciting project even better!
"We have secured more than 20,000 books for these remote schools. It is historical. Thank you for all your unreserved efforts." 聽
-Garedew Assefa, New Covenant Foundation Ethiopia Director, addressing the gathered community and project supporters in Wekin, Ethiopia