In September of 2002, over 60,000 books were sent to a library located on Mongezi road at the SHAWCO Community Centre in Khayelitsha. SHAWCO (Student Health and Welfare Community Organization) is the organization in charge of running the Community Centre and receiving donated books.

The Centre currently employs a full-time librarian, Primrose Mazule, and has relocated to a larger room to accommodate the growing number of books.

The library has a general reference section complete with encyclopedias and dictionaries. It also has poetry, humor, and both Afrikaans and Xhosa fiction sections. Story time hour happens everyday, and on average about 70 children use the library every afternoon Monday to Friday.

In addition, 14 computers were donated by Africare, a USA based NGO. Microsoft also donated its standard MS Office package plus some language and math educational game programs. Printers were also given to the library. In addition, 60,000 Rand (About $10,000 USD) was donated from the University of Cape Town business school students, who won the money at a local competition. This money was used to install the cabling and improve security (putting in reinforced steel burglar bars and gates and reinforcing the ceiling.)

The Khayelitsha (Kai-uh-leet-sha) Centre Library was started in March of 1999 by an American Trinity College (Hartford, CT) student studying abroad at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Its goal is to create a place for children to go after school and provide books for children living in an impoverished area. Working in conjunction with S.T.E.P. (the Student Tutoring and Education Project) and its parent organization SHAWCO,, shelves, bookends, tables, chairs, and other library materials were brought in to the SHAWCO Centre in the township of Khayelitsha, just outside of Cape Town. There, students from Trinity, Princeton, Middlebury, Harvard, and other colleges and universities went into the township 3 to 4 times a week during their stay in South Africa to organize books and set up a cataloguing system for the library. Many of the children who attended after-school activities sponsored by S.T.E.P. contributed greatly to organizing and cataloguing library materials.

The first overseas donation came from the Trinity Episcopal Church in Topsfield, MA in June of 1999, followed by another donation from Dr. Julius Dudley, a Salem State Professor. Dr. Dudley has, to date, shipped over 4 million books to locations all over South Africa. In the fall of 2000, a part-time librarian, Primrose Mazule, was hired and later became full-time. Since then, subsequent donations have come from Trinity College in May of 2000, Berwick Academy in June of 2001, and many other individuals throughout the year.