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Educating people and protecting the environment.
Donated by individuals, companies, schools, universities, churches, publishers, libraries and bookshops in the UK.
Processed, shipped and delivered to readers across 23 African countries.
Books2Africa is a UK-registered charity (1152599) that accepts all types of books and computers. Arrange a collection from anywhere in the UK or deliver to our drop-off point near you. Our team process and refurbish donated items at our UK Processing Centre and sponsors fund shipments that deliver them to students and teachers across Africa. Track the journey of every donated item to its final beneficiary via your Impact Portal and receive Impact Photos and Reports after delivery.
How we work in 5 steps
Let's face it, the books and computers you no longer use are no good sitting on shelves or in a cupboard.
Use strong cardboard boxes and secure with tape to prevent any damage to your items in transit.
Complete our online booking form for a courier collection from anywhere in the UK, or an appointment to deliver to our drop-off point near you.
After your booking, we'll email you a booking reference number to be written boldly on all your boxes of donated items before collection or dropping off.
A donation of £1 covers the complete readcycling journey of 1 book from a donor's shelves in the UK to the hands of a reader in the middle of Africa. That's 90% less than it'll cost to buy the same book in Africa if available in the market.
Our goal is to readcycle 1,000,000 books every year. Become one of the monthly donors we can count on or a corporate sponsor of container shipments of resources that'll educate people and protect the environment.
It costs about £0.30 per book to cover the courier cost of transporting boxes of donated items to our UK Processing Centre. An additional processing cost of £0.20 per book is incurred in cataloguing, refurbishing and repackaging items ready for shipping to Africa.
It costs about £0.20 per book to cover the shipping and admin costs of exporting boxes of donated items in shipping containers to a port in Africa, and about £0.30 per book for customs clearance costs and local haulage charges through tricky roads to a reader's hands.
Our team of paid staff and volunteers work tirelessly to create a record of every donated book using Curiosity - our bespoke inventory management system.
At least one of every donor's book is tagged with an Impact Sticker to ensure that they receive an Impact Photo of that book back from the recipient.
As a Microsoft Registered Third-Party Refurbisher (TPR), all devices with data storage are securely wiped using BitRaser and certificates of data wipe are emailed to donors. Faulty parts are also replaced and fresh software installations and updates are done before shipping to Africa.
Up to 20% of donated books as well as ineligible donated items and devices are sold in the UK via our online charity shop. This raises funds to cover our overheads - rent, business rates, utility bills, insurance, equipment costs and marketing.
Organisations such as schools, universities, public libraries and community organisations can complete our online application form to request and fund a shipment from our UK Processing Centre direct to their project in any African country.
Thanks to our sponsors, large container shipments of books and computers are shipped regularly to our Distribution Centres in Africa, where individuals in that country can read for free or contribute a small distribution fee to take away any book in stock.
Our Digital Study Kits carrying a refurbished laptop, a solar reading light and online access to digital books are shipped by air and arrive within 3-5 days. Larger consignments such as a pallet (1,000 books), a 20ft container (20,000 books) and a 40ft container (40,000 books) are shipped by sea and arrive within 30 to 60 days.
Upon receiving their donated educational resources, beneficiaries can ensure access and usage of these materials via one of our recommended distribution methods: (A) establishing and equipping libraries, or (B) giving out items to readers as part of a literacy campaign or initiative.
Our book donors have access to their personal Impact Dashboard where they can track and receive notifications on the journey and final recipient of their donated books in real-time.
Our book donors also receive an impact photo of the final recipient of some of their donated books when delivered, especially any that have been tagged with an Impact Sticker.
Organisations who receive shipments are required to submit an impact report within three months of delivery - a detailed survey about relevance and usage of materials received. These impact reports are published on our website.
Our supporters are kept updated on the operations and performance of the charity via a monthly e-newsletter and a quarterly Sponsors Update online meeting where charts and graphs showing the charity's KPIs are shared with our sponsors.
We are grateful for the individuals and organisations who sponsor container shipments of books and computers to help us achieve our mission and to all who have supported Books2Africa in various ways over the years.
