<p>"Books are so rare in many African countries that children celebrate receiving them as if it were Christmas morning, says Brad Mattson, a manager for Books for Africa, a nonprofit group that ships donated books to African countries.</p>
<p>Mattson traveled last year to a remote Tanzanian village, where he saw children who were studying in mud-brick schools with no electricity or running water eagerly grab a shipment of donated textbooks.</p>
<p>"It was like my kid getting an Xbox,‘’ says Mattson. “They protect them like gold.”</p>
<p>Is there a moral obligation to feed poor children’s minds as well as their bodies? Books for Africa’s leaders think so. The group says it shipped 2.7 million books to 24 African countries last year to combat what it calls a “book famine.”</p>
<p>About 33 percent of school-age children in Africa have never set foot in a classroom, according to a U.N. study released this year. Among those who have, it’s not uncommon for 10 students to share one textbook, Books for Africa officials say."
[Africa’s</a> hidden famine - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/06/17/impact.books.for.africa/index.html]Africa’s”>Feeding kids' minds: a moral obligation? - CNN.com)</p>