In their good books: self storage provides precious space for a charity for Africa

Books for East Africa

Read International is a UK-based charity that collects books from local secondary schools and ships them on to schools in Uganda and Tanzania. These schools follow a syllabus similar to the UK, but lack the resources to purchase the necessary books: the price of a school book in the UK is the equivalent of a person’s monthly wage in East Africa.

The charity was set up in 2004 by students at Nottingham University. It now operates in more than 45 university sites in the UK, and has recently set up at Aberystwyth University.

Mid Wales Storage

Read International’s student volunteers from Aberystwyth University use a storage unit at the Mid Wales Storage Centre to sort out books which they have collected. They scan them using an electronic book sorting database developed by the British Library, and then pack them up in boxes ready to be shipped to East Africa.

To date, Read International has shipped a total of 850,000 books to over 580 East African secondary schools and 23 libraries; and by this coming summer the charity aims to deliver another 300,000 books, raising the total to 1 million.

Mid Wales Storage is pleased to support Read International and the work that the volunteers have achieved.

For more about Read International, visit their website.

Photo reproduced by permission of  Mid Wales Storage.

3 Responses to “In their good books: self storage provides precious space for a charity for Africa”

1. Alan Stephenson says:

   April 30, 2011 at 12:46 am

   What a great idea. Storage companies could be used as bases for book donations from the public, for collection by Read International. Removal companies that have storage would also be able to donate large numbers of books from their customers who are de- cluttering prior to removal. I will be in contact to see how we can help. Another point to make is that with the increase in reading technology more books should become available.

2. Storage Stevenage says:

   June 8, 2011 at 10:42 am

   I suspect you will find that self storage companies throughout Britain do their bit for charity organisations. We have 3-4 different charities storing things at minimal, or free, rates and I am sure other companies act similarly.

3. David Anderson says:

   September 28, 2011 at 12:18 pm

   I appreciated Storage companies efforts that could be used as bases for book donations from the public, for collection by Read International. Another point to make is that with the increase in reading technology more books should become available.