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MARQUETTE - The exotic smells of chicken cooked Gambian style, North African lamb and date stew filled the community room at Peter White Public Library Friday evening.

People were there to taste the African dishes and then listen to Marquette native Carole Patrikakos, 30, who now lives in Minneapolis, speak about her work with the organization "Books for Africa."

"We're constantly fundraising to get books to Africa where they're needed the most," she said, adding that those areas are often in countries devastated by civil wars.

"Books for Africa" is a nonprofit organization that collects books and sends them to schools, libraries and universities in African countries.

"We're the world's largest shipper of donated books to the African continent," Patrikakos said. "We ship to 45 African countries. There are 47 million kids in Africa and 40 percent have never been in a classroom."

In a video presentation, Patrikakos showed how individuals, publishers, schools, libraries and organizations donate textbooks and library volumes that can be shipped in a container to Africa. The organization then relies on volunteers to distribute the books to needy areas.

Patrikakos said since 1988, her organization has shipped more than 20 million books to Africa.

"We ship about one container with 20,000 books a week," she said. "Books for Africa gets a book to Africa for 50 cents."

Patrikakos has lived in Senegal, West Africa, and another supporter of the cause, Father James Challancin of Ishpeming, talked about the poverty and lack of books he'd seen first hand in Tanzania .

"I taught in Tanzania for two years," he said as part of Patrikakos' presentation. "We didn't have textbooks. We did it by lecture, and the kids couldn't go to their textbooks and follow what we said."

Challancin said he loved the people in Africa but the poverty saddened him. He decided to become a regular donor to Books for Africa to help kids learn and read.

Challancin said he can't fathom life without books, "when I think how much reading has opened up my life."

Patrikakos and Challancin encouraged audience members to donate books or money to the cause. For more information, go to www.booksforafrica.org