Ngo: At 13, Natasha Agarwal started a school book drive; 5 years later her nonprofit donated over 250,000 books to children across the US and Africa | World News
In 2021, Natasha Agarwal was an eighth-grader with a concern that ‘too many children did not have books at home.’ Five years later, the school book drive she began has grown into ‘BelieveNBooks,’ a youth-led nonprofit that has donated more than 250,000 books and reached over 50,000 children in the United States and Africa. Its growth shows how one teenager’s love of reading developed into an effort to make books more accessible to young people who need them. The organisation has expanded through volunteers, community book drives and partnerships with groups working with children and families. Along the way, Agarwal has written a children’s book and helped build a network. Her story is not about collecting books. It is about turning a passion into an organisation that keeps growing, through partnerships and by reaching one child at a time.
Meet Natasha Agarwal, a teenager whose school book drive grew into an international nonprofit
The idea began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Agarwal came across news reports about children across the United States who had little or no access to books at home. The contrast with her own experience as someone who had always been surrounded by books made a lasting impression. According to ‘Points of Light,’ she began thinking about how books she had already finished reading could be passed on to children who needed them. She decided to organise a book drive at her school, initially without knowing how large the response would be.The result surprised her. Agarwal and her friends collected around 3,000 books, which were donated to the ‘Guadalupe Center’ in Florida. The success of that first effort convinced her that the project could become something bigger. That experience led Agarwal to establish ‘BelieveNBooks’ as a nonprofit. What started as a school initiative had become an organised effort to connect children with books they could read and keep.
BelieveNBooks launches ‘PageTurner’ reading program at Guadalupe Center. Image Credit: BelieveNBooks
Partnerships helped BelieveNBooks reach children beyond its first community
Partnerships appear to have played a central role in the organisation’s growth. According to Forbes, Agarwal is one of two teenage nonprofit founders who built their organisations by developing relationships with people and groups that shared their missions. For BelieveNBooks, the connection with the Guadalupe Center created after that first school book drive, was an early example of this approach. The partnership helped open the door to a wider network of nonprofit collaborators.The organisation also found ways to make its work easier for volunteers to repeat. Forbes reported that simple toolkits, including outreach templates, branding materials and checklists, allowed individual ambassadors to organise book drives without having to create a new system each time. Volunteer support has been equally important. Since 2021, BelieveNBooks has coordinated with students at ‘Florida Gulf Coast University’ to help run its operations. Involving those students became particularly valuable as she continued her education while maintaining the organisation’s work in Florida.
BelieveNBooks expanded from a local book drive into an international effort
BelieveNBooks has steadily extended its reach since its early days. According to its website, the nonprofit has organised more than 100 book drives and now works across 28 locations, including 16 in the United States and 12 in Africa. The organisation reports that it has distributed more than 257,000 books and served over 51,000 children.Its work in Africa has also taken a different form. According to Points of Light, Agarwal wrote ‘Tales of African Women Trailblazers,’ a children’s book featuring 21 African-born women who overcame different forms of adversity. The book grew out of her research into educational inequality and her interest in giving young readers examples of what they might achieve. BelieveNBooks has worked with nonprofit partners in Ghana, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Kenya and Uganda to distribute 10,000 copies of the book across the continent.
The Launch of ‘Tales of African Women Trailblazers.’ Image Credit: BelieveNBooks
A personal love of reading became a wider mission for Natasha
Books had been an important part of Agarwal’s own life, particularly during the pandemic. According to BelieveNBooks, reading allowed her to explore different places and ways of life even when travel was not possible. That experience shaped the organisation’s purpose. BelieveNBooks was created to provide children in need with new and gently used books, with the aim of supporting literacy, broadening horizons and helping young readers better understand the world around them.The organisation’s name also reflects that belief. According to its website, the ‘N’ in BelieveNBooks is a reference to its founder, while the wider name represents the idea that books can help children believe in what is possible. The first book drive eventually developed into a much broader network. BelieveNBooks now works through community drives, targeted book purchases and several distribution programmes designed to meet the needs of different groups of children and families.For Agarwal, the impact of BelieveNBooks is most visible when children receive books of their own and realise they can take it home and start building a personal library. The story of BelieveNBooks demonstrates how a small project can keep growing when the original purpose remains clear. For Agarwal, that purpose began with a simple belief that every child should have the opportunity to open a book and discover something new.
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