Collecting books for African schools

Video about the work of READ International

This year, our students have been packing old text books up to send to READ International. This is a student run charity which collects disused, high-quality Key Stage 3 and GCSE textbooks from UK secondary schools and delivers them to schools across Tanzania and Uganda.

To date, READ Book Projects have donated over 850,000 textbooks to over 580 Tanzanian secondary schools and twenty three regional libraries. In the summer of 2011 they aim to deliver another 300,000 across to Tanzania and Uganda — and ship their millionth book to East Africa.

“This year, we’ll be contributing to this great project, which promotes volunteering, young social enterprise, recycling and global citizenship,” said Helen Wood, the Director of the International Study Centre and the person who initiated the recycling of old text books at the College.

“It is frustrating to see large numbers of good quality text books going to be recycled at best or to landfill at worst, simply because the syllabus has changed and we can no longer use them. READ International works on a simple but effective principle: it gives these books a second life and helps contribute to the education of children in more deprived areas of the world, where text books are a luxury and one book is often shared between 10 or more students.”

The International Study Centre students are currently completing their Citizenship Studies coursework. They were pleased to be taking part. “It’s great”, said Sasha Sokolova, “because we’re not just recycling the books into new paper, they are going to be put to a really good use, helping poorer students.”

The sight of Toby Sun, Sasha Sokolova and Kira Liao busily taping up boxes and carefully packing piles of books has spurred Maths teacher, Ursula Boughton, into action. “There are lots of really good text books in other parts of the College that we can no longer use, but are collecting in cupboards, so I’ll sort those out and see if we can send them, too.”

If you have disused textbooks that you wish to donate to READ, are interested in fundraising for us, or simply want more information please contact your nearest book project:

To donate books, email books@readinternational.org.uk; for more information, email info@readinternational.org.uk