A nonprofit started by an area teacher is getting a nice donation for hospital patients in Africa.

Barb Houle and Lindiwe Sibisi recently received 20 copies of the “Spiritually Motivated” Christian music CD from the Hormel Institute to give to hospitals in Swaziland, in the southern part of Africa.

“It is a wonderful gift,” Sibisi said. “It’s very useful in the country, because the people in the hospitals need something to have.”

Houle and Sibisi are the people behind Read to Recovery, which gives patients in African hospitals books and music to help them pass the time waiting for doctors.

“They had nothing to do,” Houle said.

Houle got the idea for Read to Recovery when she visited Sibisi and her family in Africa. They visited someone in the hospital, and Houle noticed the room, which held a number of patients on cot-like-beds, didn’t provide anything for patients to do to pass the time. There were no TVs, no magazines or books, and nothing for recovering patients to look at.

Spiritually Motivated, an off-shoot of the Adult Choir at Austin’s St. Augustine Catholic Church, began as an ecumenical choral group in 1997, under the guidance of choral director Jan Muzik. After a hiatus, the group was reborn when Jim King, of Eighth Avenue Recording in Austin, enlisted former members Michael Veldman, Erin Schumacher, Faye Bollingberg, Brendhan Wagner, Brian Bawek and Jan Muzik to help create an album, with all the proceeds going to cancer research at the Hormel Institute.

The books and CDs have gone to at least four hospitals in Swaziland so far. Aside from the CDs, Houle said she plans to send two more packages of books to Africa soon.

“It’s really an awesome thing to be a part of,” she said.