Donating books

The book in every hand appeal, Malawi 2011

Update on 20 October 2011: The Books arrive in Malawi!

My reunion with the books in Malawi felt surreal.  I’m rarely lost for words, but as David Gordon (Chairman of The Book Bus) and I stood looking at the 63 giant boxes of books delivered – not a single word was spoken for what felt like a very long time.  That was a reflection of our emotion. 

David asked me to coordinate the Book in Every Hand back in March this year, with the aim of sending 5,000 books out to Malawi and I just happened to be blown into the office one day looking for a new voluntary project.

Of any projects I’ve experienced, this project has been a journey of epic magnitude, a real roller-coaster ride. I’ve been humbled by the gift of outgrown favourite books from school children in the UK and overwhelmed by the generous donations from bookshops, publishers and previous volunteers.

The effort and management needed to pack and organise the books leading to the shipment brought many challenges and obstacles but by golly it was worth it – giving the books out to the children in Malawi made it absolutely worth it.

We handed the books out in six schools, an orphanage and a pre-school. We set up libraries in four schools.  The first school we began the book handout was fantastic. We didn’t want to just give the books away; we wanted to introduce a book swap day to the learners hoping that by sharing their books they would have access to a much larger pool.  The head teacher received a healthy stock of books for the school library and then supported the book handout, writing her own posters, fixing them to the trees around the school site and promoting the book swap day with heartwarming passion.  It couldn’t have gone better.

What was my favourite memory from the first book handout?  I have so many, two to share… 

We gave the books out at the end of each storytelling session.  The Book Bus volunteers would explain to the learners that these books were theirs to keep.  I heard so many lovely stories of the children’s varied reactions from the volunteers, all positive.  As a group of three teenage boys walked away with their books, they were discreetly comparing each other’s books only to place them in their back trouser pockets.  I don’t know why I liked it so much – but I did.  It was very natural, understated.

A group of more animated girls were delightfully chatting about their books, and one quieter girl placed her book on her head and walked on to her next lesson.  I loved that!

As I stood looking at the children holding their books in Malawi – I felt a peaceful euphoria ‘we did it!

Your books and kind donations do make a difference to the children of Africa. Thank you to everyone involved along every step of the journey and I hope you’ll join us and support us in 2012 on our next target as we aim to send 10,000 books to the Meheba refugee settlement in Zambia.

You can be part of this!  Donate a book, organise a book collection, do some fundraising or why not experience this first hand…Why not collect books and then volunteer on the Book Bus from June to August in Meheba and be part of the book handout.

I look forward to hearing from you.

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Read more: The book in every hand appeal, Malawi 2011

Donating books to The Book Bus

We need more books for our Book Buses

You can make a valuable contribution to the Book Bus by donating children’s story books for use on our Buses in Zambia, Malawi and Ecuador.

You can make a valuable contribution to the Book Bus by donating children’s story books for use on our Buses in Zambia, Malawi and Ecuador. We can’t accept all types of book and from our own experience working with the schools we have a good idea of which books work and which books don’t. To help you collect the books that make the greatest impact refer to our book choice guidelines below. We always request multiple copies of a particular title so that every child can read from a book during our reading sessions. For example, five copies of the same book are more useful than five different books.

Best of all are new books and many great titles can be bought cheaply from Amazon, The Works and Books etc., used books in good condition are also suitable. To ensure efficient delivery, please refer to our delivery guidelines below.

Book Choice Guidelines
We work mainly with primary school level children whose English language skills range from fluent to good learner (English is the language of education in Zambia and Malawi). In Ecuador, all material is in the Spanish Language, otherwise the guidelines below apply. The reading age range is from 6 to 11 years old.

Topics that work:

• Animals
• Monsters/magic
• Rockets/stars/space
• Travelling
• School
• Adventures
• African story books
• (Search Amazon.co.uk for an amazing range of African animal tales that are cheap, colourful and written for the right level)

Topics to avoid:

• Money
• Food
• Western customs eg Christmas / tooth fairy
• School course work books

Themes and book types that work:

• Pop up books
• Non fiction (primary level)
• We seriously need more non fiction – e.g. the Usbourne Beginners series
• Atlases and children’s encyclopaedias
• Picture books
• Counting books

Good places to look for reasonably priced books

Discount bookshops such as Books Etc or The Works Amazon or other online retailers

TOP TIPS
It is better to donate 5 of the same book than 5 different ones. Go for thin paperback books they weigh a lot less! If you have any questions regarding suitability of the books you have collected please don’t hesitate to get in touch by phone  01822 616 191 or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Delivery Guidelines
Your donated books’ journey to their final destination in Africa or South America starts with the initial delivery to our premises in Warwick. If you live nearby you can drop them in personally, otherwise refer to the courier system outlined below. The address to send all book donations to is:

The Book Bus Foundation
c/o VentureCo Worldwide
Lockyer House,
Paddon’s Row,
Tavistock.
PL19 0HR

Using a courier service
If your package weighs more than 2kg (which it probably will), you can save an absolute packet (sorry) by using a discount web courier service instead of the Royal Mail - and they’ll even collect the wrapped books from your house. You can specify the pick up day which can even be for the next day if you get your order in on time.

How big can my parcel be?
All couriers calculate costs based on the size and weight of items. However, discount courier companies tend to offer flat-rate prices, based on these maximum dimensions: 150 cm length, max volume of 0.23 cubic metres, max weight of 30kg. One big package that falls within these dimensions works out cheaper to send than two smaller packages, be careful how you pack it though and watch your back when lifting heavy boxes!

Recommended courier
At time of writing (November 2011) www.collectmyparcel.com were charging £8.99 + VAT to deliver a package weighing up to 30kg – that’s a lot of books!

Get your packaging right
This isn't just for cosmetic purposes, package your books properly as you never know how much they'll be thrown around in transit.

Packing materials
All good packing requires is a bit of common sense. Grab free cardboard boxes from supermarkets and pad them lightly with bubble wrap or screwed up newspaper. Use strong tape to seal the box.

Delivery forms
Courier services make you fill in a booking form for each box you send. These can be completed online, or downloaded from the web and printed out.

Collection/delivery times
It may sound obvious, but make sure you're going to be in for the whole of the day. If you miss the pick up, you'll likely have to repay to reschedule another.

Finally, thank you for making your donation – every book we send to our Book Buses will, in some way, make a difference to a child’s life in Zambia. Malawi or Ecuador.

The Book Bus
Improving Children’s Lives, One Book at a Time