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Books change lives Book Aid International Annual Review 2015 1 A note from our Chair The Rt Hon The Lord Paul Boateng The progress of our Open Doors Children’s Corners programme has been one of the highlights of 2015 and 16 new Children’s Corners in Uganda, In September 2015 I visited some of the libraries Cameroon and Malawi have opened their doors to in Zimbabwe supported by Book Aid International. eager young readers this year. I was inspired by the passion of the readers and librarians that I met who were continuously striving to Late in 2015 we launched our major new develop a reading culture. Most memorable was the programme – Inspiring Readers – which aims to moment I donated new medical books to a group of bring a world of reading into the classrooms of hospital librarians on Book Aid International’s behalf. 310 African primary schools. Around a quarter of a They were delighted and could hardly wait to get million children will benefit from having brand new, back to their libraries and proudly display the new relevant books to support their education. books on their shelves. It was a moment when the value of the book is plain to see. It has been another year of hard work and great achievement for Book Aid International. I am very It brought back memories of my own early boyhood grateful – to the publishers who donate such in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) when I first opened relevant and high quality reading material; to the Orlando the Marmalade Cat - a reading experience volunteers who spend so many hours helping us to only made possible by Book Aid International and pick and pack books; to our partners in Africa who its donors. I never looked back and neither will work with us to make our shared vision a reality and the beneficiaries of our work today. Thank you on to you, our supporters who make all of this work their behalf. possible. We couldn’t do it without you. A note from our Director A lison Tweed In 2015 we surpassed all our targets and sent over 1.12 million books to our library partners, reaching an estimated 24 million readers in Africa At Book Aid International we believe that everyone with wonderful, brand new books, all individually should have the opportunity to derive pleasure from selected for the libraries by our expert team here in books and to improve their own lives through reading. Camberwell, South East London. This Annual Review looks at the work we did in 2015 We are a small charity but with a large reach and to support readers and would-be readers from all strong support from many quarters. In addition to walks of life. our thousands of loyal individual supporters we were delighted in 2015 to have Jonathan Dimbleby Our work aims to make books available to all, at all present our Radio 4 appeal, and Mariella Frostrup, stages of life and in all situations: whether young or John Simpson and Ken Follett support key old, city dweller or rural farmer, university student fundraising initiatives and events. We believe our or out-of-work youth, lawyer or prisoner, doctor or appeal is broad because our message is simple: patient, politician or displaced person. books change lives. We do this by working through a wide and diverse Thank you to everyone who supported our work network of libraries across the continent, sending in 2015 and who worked in partnership with us to books generously donated by publishers to where move toward our vision of a better and book-rich they are needed most. future for Africa. 2 About Book Aid International The need for our work Millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa are unable to reach their full potential because of a basic lack of books. Literacy, education and access to information are instrumental in the fight against poverty but for too many people these goals are out of reach. Rates of illiteracy in sub-Saharan Africa have dropped significantly in recent years but one child in five still misses out on primary school and one adult in three still can’t read. Books are scarce in many of the communities where we work. Schools, colleges and universities often have insufficient books to support education effectively and many families have no books at home. Libraries offer people a chance to develop their reading skills and increase their knowledge. They represent the best chance for many people in Africa to develop a love of reading and to find the information they need to change their own lives for the better. The change we want to see Our vision is of vibrant libraries, inspired readers and empowered communities. When people have access to the books they need they are better able to contribute to their communities and shape their own futures. We look forward to a time when all libraries in Africa are helping their communities develop, through the provision of a varied, relevant and up-to-date book collection, by being a hub of community activity and resources and by providing people with access to information in a variety of ways – through books, online information and educational activities. In 2015 the UN set the Sustainable Development Goals, aiming to dramatically improve the lives of the world’s poorest people over the next 15 years. We see our work contributing to Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning. This goal is in the forefront of our minds when we design new programmes, seek new partners and assess the breadth and impact of our work. The work we do We work in partnership with libraries in sub-Saharan Africa providing books, resources and training to support an environment in which reading for pleasure, study and lifelong learning can flourish. We provide brand new, carefully selected books to libraries which might otherwise have empty shelves and we support libraries to run projects which benefit their local communities. Through our training programmes we help to develop inspirational children’s librarians who bring books to life for young children and set them on a path of lifelong learning. 3 The books we send In 2015 we sent 1,120,915 carefully-selected books to our library partners in sub-Saharan Africa and the Occupied Palestinian Territories Selecting books that can change lives We partner with local library services who play a vital role in our work. We work through library or NGO partners in each country who ensure our books get to a wide network of libraries. Each year our partners fill in detailed book requirement forms so we know the type of books they need and the quantities they require. We then match our selections to these requests as closely as we can. In 2015 two thirds of the books we sent were for children – both to support education and to encourage a love of reading. We also sent books to support secondary and higher education as well as technical and vocational books to support lifelong learning. The libraries we support The books are sent to our partners, who distribute them to public and community libraries, libraries in schools, universities, hospitals, prisons and refugee camps. This wide range of libraries means we can get new books to readers at all ages and stages of their lives. A large proportion of the libraries we support are in schools, providing children with the opportunity to supplement their curriculum learning with relevant, age appropriate reading Book selections in our warehouse materials. Book Aid International books make up a high proportion of the collection in many of these libraries. Supporting local publishing We aim to support local publishing as part of our project work by providing grants for our partners to buy locally published books, often in local languages. This provides books, particularly for children, which reflect their own world and environment. One of the ways we did this in 2015 was through our project funding for the Open Doors programme which establishes Children’s Corners in public libraries. Each library receives funding to purchase around 350 locally published books. We provide small grants for our partners to purchase locally published books Total number of books sent in 2015: Number of libraries benefiting in 2015: 1,120,915 2,624 4 The books we sent in 2015 Books sent by subject area in 2015 The story and picture books we sent for young children are designed to Children and primary 696,264 instil a love of reading from an early age. Educational books support Development 14,602 their studies through primary and English language skills 52,808 secondary school and include phonics readers to help develop English Fiction (adult) 38,362 language skills, dictionaries, atlases Higher education 50,479 and revision guides. Law 4,238 Books which support higher education Leisure reading 27,883 institutions form an important part of our programme and include books Medicine and health care 35,250 on medicine and health care, law, Professional (business and finance) 19,046 engineering, teaching and accounting. Reference 6,259 We provide leisure reading for all ages so that people who use the Secondary 123,478 libraries we support can enjoy reading Teacher training 20,278 throughout their lives. Teenage fiction 24,776 We also provided 275 e-readers and Vocational/technical 7,192 tablets for use in children’s libraries and purchased over 200,000 e-books. TOTAL 1,120,915 The countries we supported Books sent by country in 2015 in 2015 In 2015 we supported libraries in 11 Cameroon 56,713 countries in sub-Saharan Africa as well Eritrea 41,256 as providing books for libraries in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

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