Education = Freedom
As we all shelter in place and learn to adapt to our new normal, we here at The Third Chapter Project hope that you are all safe and healthy. We also want to thank everyone who is still working because they are truly essential.
The following is an introduction to Third Chapter Project and the inspiration behind its founding.
Education in Sub-Saharan Africa has a complicated history. From the days of colonial rule to today’s patchwork of educational inequities, the African education system has tried to serve the needs of the few and failed to meet the needs of the many. Sub-Saharan Africa has a combined population of approximately 1.2 billon with a 64% illiteracy rate, which represents close to 20% of the worlds illiterate. If you look at the Gross Enrollment Ratio and compare it to other developing nations and then contrast it with Europe and North America, you can see the magnitude of the problem. Only 3% of age appropriate Africans are enrolled in post-secondary education, 11.3% for other developing nations and a whopping 70% in the developed nations. (UIN Global Education Digest 2010)
That is why we, the former ACLS Humanities E Book team, have formed The Third Chapter Project, Inc. a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Our mission is,
To facilitate and improve access to and support digital scholarly communication predominately in the social sciences and humanities to underserved academic communities in selected regions of developing nations including the Global South.
There are many agencies, corporations and foundations addressing the problem from many different angles and frankly, it still is not enough. Third Chapter is focused on providing digital content and scholarship in the humanities and social science to a community that is inadequately supplied and resource strapped. How we differ from others in the field is in our approach to the problem. We look to be the bridge between publishers and the needs of the students/scholars. We are a grant funded resource for the university at the same time we are developing future markets for publishers.
We here at Third Chapter hoped to be in Africa visiting universities and schools but because travel is now delayed by a few months, we have been working on building our structure and relationships. Our website will now have an Amazon link to print versions of a curated collection of African Studies titles. The first phase will have 280 books that were recommended by scholars and societies. Currently, we have a few titles live, but will be adding to this list as more content becomes available and we hope to develop independent relationships with the different Presses themselves. Please visit https://www.thirdchapter.org/bookstore/
We would love to connect with you, visit our Contact page to drop a note or ask us any questions!