Minneapolis man has helped send 1 million books to The Gambia, his home country
Lamin Dibba wants to give back to a country where library shelves are empty and few people own books.聽
When Lamin M. "Lang" Dibba was growing up in Gambia, his father used to say that if you trip on a rock and find money, you'd better go back and kiss the rock.
"I said, 'Dad, I will do it,'" recalled Dibba, who now lives in Minneapolis. "My dad was rich in spirit, he was rich inside, he was rich in a way that money can't buy."
Dibba's way of honoring his father's memory is raising money to send donated books to his native country. Last year, 10 years after its start, his聽1 Million Books for the Gambia聽project celebrated having shipped literally 1 million books, ranging from children's books to college texts, to the tiny African country of 2.5 million.