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Books delivered to students and teachers in Africa

UK Registered Charity No 1152599

Our Story

Quality Education
Cleaner Environment

“New data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics show that 617 million children and adolescents worldwide are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics. Sub-Saharan Africa has the single largest number – 202 million – of children and adolescents who are not learning. Across the region, nearly nine out of ten kids between the ages of about 6 and 14 are not gaining minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics.” ¹

¹ UNESCO
Also see WORLD BANK

Every year more than 13 million books are sent to landfill in the UK.² At least, another 26 million books (26,000 tonnes) are recycled.³

² CODEP
³ Also see WORLD OF BOOKS

Mission

Our mission is to improve the quality of education in Africa through the provision of books and educational resources that enable students to acquire knowledge and achieve their full potential in a globalized world. We fulfil our mission with the generous support of donors, volunteers, sponsors and partners.

Sustainable

Our 80/20 fundraising model means we cover our overheads by trading up to 20% of donated books and resources via our online charity shop.

Donate your books or resources

Cost-effective

Thanks to individual and corporate sponsors, 80% of donated books and resources are shipped to people across Africa at an average of 50p per book.

Fund a shipment to Africa

Transparent

Our Integrated Web App and Database tracks donated books from the donor to the receiver, with impact photos and reports published on our website.

View impact reports

Explore Our Journey

Books2Africa is a UK Registered Charity (1152599) that is committed to reducing environmental waste in the UK and improving the quality of education in Africa through the collection and distribution of books. Founded in 2012 by four African students during their time studying in the UK, the organisation now has Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

4 African students who came to study in the UK sat around a table after dinner at Beverley Farmhouse and Books2Africa was born. They collected more than 11,000 books in their first year and were nominated best new volunteering society at the Kent Union Awards that year.
Founded as a student volunteering society at the University of Kent
Founded as a student volunteering society at the University of KentJan 2012
After collecting 11,000 books in their student flat, it became a health and safety risk! They moved the books to a rented storage container at a discounted rate offered by A&S Self Storage in Dover. They also registered Books2Africa officially with the Charity’s Commission.
Became a UK registered charity operating from a storage unit in Dover
Became a UK registered charity operating from a storage unit in DoverMay 2013
Without adequate funding to ship books to Africa, we decided to ask institutions and projects in Africa who want books to fund their shipment if they can afford to. Soon after this, we were able to send our first pallet carrying 1,067 books.
First pallet shipment to College Al-Irfane in Morocco, funded by the college
First pallet shipment to College Al-Irfane in Morocco, funded by the collegeFeb 2014
Building up to the launch of Season 2 of its TV series “The Librarians”, Universal Channel Africa did a campaign in partnership with Books2Africa to raise funds and awareness for the charity. Funds raised were able to fund the shipment of 6 containers of books, all loaded by hand!
First container shipment to Nigeria funded by Universal Channel Africa
First container shipment to Nigeria funded by Universal Channel AfricaNov 2015
With Northern Nigeria having some of the highest levels of illiteracy in Africa, it was considered the ideal location for Books2Africa’s first Distribution Office. Here workers will receive container shipments of books, display them in shelves for people to browse and select what they need. This also creates jobs and volunteering roles locally.
First distribution office in Africa opened in Jos, Nigeria
First distribution office in Africa opened in Jos, NigeriaMay 2016
The Lord Mayor of Canterbury Councillor Rosemary Doyle officially declared open Books2Africa’s new processing centre in Canterbury. She presented awards to volunteers and to container shipment sponsors Ninety Foundation and Macmillan Education.
Moved to warehouse and achieved UN consultative status
Moved to warehouse and achieved UN consultative statusMay 2017
Following the success of our consolidated distribution model, new Distribution Offices were launched in West and East Africa. Our aim is to open more distribution offices in all four regions of Africa, situated primarily in coastal countries.
Opened more Distribution offices in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya
Opened more Distribution offices in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and KenyaDec 2018
Five years after our first shipment of books to Africa, on 4th May 2019 we shipped our 1 millionth book to Africa, part of a container shipment to Kalibu Academy High School and Primary School in Malawi. This milestone was celebrated with a #1MillionBooks2Africa event, a re-brand and launch of the 1 Million Book Club.
1 million books
1 million booksMay 2019
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1 Million Books annually,
shipped in 50 Containers

Can your organisation commit to sponsoring at least 1 of these 50 containers annually? A commitment of £5,000 per container, covering the cost of processing, shipping and delivering 20,000 books to the hands of students and teachers across Africa. Your company logo will be listed on our Sponsors Wall below and on relevant impact report pages.

Corporate Partner Opportunities

Board

The board of trustees consist of founding and honorary members. The four founding directors are members of the same family, and founded the charity during their time studying as international students at universities in the UK.  The founding directors together with appointed honorary trustees ensure the charity is governed and achieving its aims and objectives while staying true to the vision of the founders. All trustees carry out extensive work for the charity and contribute to its development.

Dr Tonson Sango

Founding Trustee &
Executive Director of Operations

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Dr Precious N. Sango

Founding Trustee &
Director of Education

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Mr Chumang Sango

Founding Trustee &
Director of IT

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Mr Gideon Sango

Founding Trustee &
Director of Marketing

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Ms Arshita Nandan

Honorary Trustee

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Ms Alexandra Kieffer

Honorary Trustee

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Processing Team

Our enthusiastic team of change makers are at the heart of the charity’s UK processing centre, supporting key aspects of our operations. 

Charlie Welch

Logistics Supervisor

Rachel Allen

Sales Supervisor

Brenda Read

Rare Books Supervisor

Ambassadors

Amazing individuals who inspire us and use their image and influence to promote our cause to a wider audience in order to increase our impact.

Melissa Myambo

Zimbabwean author, scholar and Caine Prize nominee

Catherine Inglehearn

HM Ambassador to the Republic of Niger

Aarush Lala

Read 100 books in a year to raise money for Books2Africa

Sérgio Fernandes

Supply Chain Development Manager with over 20 years' experience in book publishing

Vacancies and Volunteering Roles
  • Sponsors Wall
Special thanks to the following amazing organisations

Kent Union

Books2Africa started as a student society at the University of Kent in 2012 and received a start-up fund from Kent Union

A&S Self Storage

More than 11,000 books were collected in the first year and A&S provided discounted storage, enabling us move the operation off campus and become a registered charity.

Google For Nonprofits

After becoming a registered charity, Books2Africa was accepted on the Google For Non Profits programme, receiving free digital advertising that spread the word across the UK and beyond.

Clugton Technologies

The charity has benefited from thousands of pounds worth of web design and development from Clugton, enabling us run an efficient information and communications technology infrastructure.

Universal Channel Africa

As part of the launch of Season 2 of TV show The Librarians, Universal Channel ran a TV campaign that raised £12,000 to fund our first container shipments of books to Africa.

Ninety Consulting

With a business model committed to donating 90% of their profits to charity, Ninety Consulting started funding container shipments of books in 2015

TBN UK

TBN UK aired a 30 second video about Books2Africa for several weeks on their newly launched faith and family TV channel, free of charge!

Macmillan Education

For 175 years Macmillan has built lasting relationships with teachers and educators around the world. in 2016, they started donating books to the charity and funding container shipments.

Wristband Creation

This California based company provided free customised wristbands used as part of Books2Africa's fundraising materials.

Commonwealth Education Trust

As a charity with a shared purpose of advancing education across the Commonwealth is shared, the CET decided to fund a shipment.

Zendesk Chat

Books2Africa receives a 100% charitable discount from Zendesk Chat, a toll that takes away the stress from Customer Service.

Gravity Forms

Books2Africa received a 35% charitable discount from Gravity Forms, the "Easiest Tool to Create Advanced Forms for Your Website".

Zapier

Books2Africa received a 100% charitable discount from Zapier, the "best way to Connect Your Apps and Automate Workflows".

Convertize

Books2Africa receives 100% of profits from the sale of Smart Persuasion, a book by digital marketing company Convertize.

BrightPay

Books2Africa receives a 100% charitable discount from BrightPay, "payroll software that makes managing payroll quick and easy".

Gravity Wiz

Books2Africa receives a 50% charitable discount from Gravity Wiz, a company dedicated to providing awesome Gravity Forms resources in the form of snippets, tutorials and plugins.
Why Books2Africa
Make Impact
Make a significant impact as an individual or organisation by helping to fund the shipment and delivery of one million books to students and teachers across Africa every year.
DONATE

Books To Africa International is a UK registered charity (1152599)
An organisation in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2017.
Unit 2, Barton Business Park, Canterbury, CT1 3AA.
We do not store credit card details nor do we share financial details with any third parties.
© Books2Africa – All rights reserved 

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Coronavirus (Covid-19) updates

A quick update about what Books2Africa is doing in response to these uncertain times caused by the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Our top priority is the health and wellbeing of our staff, volunteers and supporters. Key to this is following government recommendations closely. Thankfully no suspected cases of COVID-19 have been reported amongst our staff and volunteers. Our Processing Centre in Canterbury is still operational and well stocked with the enough books and resources to ship to Africa.

Please read our updates below on steps taken to minimise the risk to staff, volunteers and supporters.

  • Public Book Collections Suspended: Effective today, we are suspending our collection service for book donations by members of the public in the UK. Although this will affect our book donation numbers, it would reduce the workload on our paid staff who continue to work during this difficult period to ensure the charity remains operational. This will be reviewed at the end of Easter on 14th April 2020.

  • Warehouse Volunteering Suspended: Effective today, we are suspending all volunteering work at the Processing Centre in Canterbury. This means all our UK and International Volunteers are no longer allowed to come into the Canterbury site. Although this will affect our processing and sorting capacity, it makes it easier for us to enforce government advise on social distancing and minimise the risk to paid staff who continue to work normal hours, ensuring our charity shop remains operational and shipments to Africa are dispatched. This will be reviewed at the end of Easter on 14th April 2020.

  • Online Volunteering: During this suspension of warehouse volunteering, we will be assigning all our volunteers to our Education Team to work on a variety of fundraising tasks online. To this end, all our International Volunteers are required to attend an online Skype meeting with our Director of Education on Wednesday 25th March at 9:30 am. UK volunteers who would like to join in can also email [email protected] to indicate their interest in order to receive further instructions on joining the meeting.

 

 
Finally a word of encouragement – Do not be afraid, stay safe and continue to have faith that this will soon pass. 
  • The strictest hygiene standards are being followed at our Processing Centre, with hand sanitisers, disinfectant sprays, plastic gloves and posters reminding staff, volunteers and supporters to wash their hands regularly and wipe their work surfaces.

 

  • No contact deliveries: Couriers delivering boxes to the Processing Centre will no longer require you to sign by hand on delivery. Rather, they are advised to enter your initials.

 

  • Drop-offs and tours suspended: From next week, drop-off appointments by members of the public will be suspended until further notice. Until then, staff and volunteers are advised to receive deliveries without contact and avoid giving members of the public tours of the Processing Centre.

 

We appreciate your understanding as the situation evolves and reassure you that we will take necessary steps to ensure your safety whilst trying to also fulfil our charitable objectives. If you need any support or advice, you can send us an email [email protected]

Thank you for your continued support and do subscribe to our coronavirus updates if you want to be remain updated.
Books2Africa UK Team

Shipping and delivering 1 million books every year
involves the following:

Volume
  • 20,000 books fit in 1 x 20ft container
  • 1,000,000 books fit in 50 x 20ft containers
  • 4 x 20ft containers shipped monthly
Costs
  • £5,000 to process, ship and clear each container of 20,000 books
  • £20,000 delivers 4 containers monthly
Fundraising Target
  • 2,000 individuals giving £10 or more monthly, or 50 corporate partners sponsoring 1 container per year. Thank you.

30%

Processing in the UK

30%

Freight from the UK

40%

Clearing and haulage in Africa

Books2Africa is a UK registered charity number 1152599