Volunteer at our UK Processing Centre in Canterbury, Kent and join our friendly and diverse team who are making a real difference. We have opportunities for UK residents and international applicants who require a UK Temporary Work – Charity Worker visa.
Books2Africa is a UK-registered charity (1152599) based in Canterbury, Kent and a charity in consultative status with the UN working on SDG 4 and SDG 12. Four African students founded the charity in 2012 at the University of Kent. Today, a team of paid staff and volunteers process donated items at our Processing Centre in Canterbury, a large warehouse where we receive more than 40,000 donated items every month. Our mission is to improve access to education and promote environmental sustainability through the redistribution of books and computers that reduce waste and empower people to achieve their full potential. Our readcycling goal is to collect, process and ship 1 million books and 1,000 computers every year, reducing waste and improving education. We call this "readcycling". Join us by becoming a volunteer.
Apply online for an available vacancy and we’ll email you to confirm if you’ve been accepted. You’ll then attend an induction training, where you’ll be assigned shifts and tasks, and receive on-the-job training as needed for your team. We expect all volunteers to behave professionally at all times.
UK volunteers who sign up for a full-day shift starting before 10am can claim up to £10 for lunch and £10 for travel on the day of their shift. You can order lunch through our Uber Eats account, or bring your own food and use our kitchen, where tea, coffee and biscuits are always available.
To recognise your contribution, we provide a certificate and references once you’ve completed at least 200 volunteering hours with us, or the hours required by your course or placement. This helps us give future employers or universities an accurate picture of your skills and experience.
Our volunteer Processing Support Officers are responsible for processing and cataloguing donated books at our Processing Centre in Canterbury.
Role Description
You'll be using a barcode scanner and keyboard to scan or type in the barcodes, ISBNs, and metadata (title, author, and publisher) of donated books into our Inventory Management System called Curiosity. This enables us to track how many books were donated as well as the journey of each book for impact reporting purposes.
Eligibility
You must be 16 or over, and a UK resident or hold a valid UK visa.
Skills Required
Able to read, write and communicate fluently in English. Experience in data entry is desirable but not essential as training will be provided.
Location
Books2Africa Processing Centre, Unit 2, Barton Business Park, New Dover Road, Canterbury, CT1 3AA.
Available Shifts: Volunteers can arrive any time between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. Full-day shifts starting before 10am qualify for up to £10 for lunch and £10 for travel.
Certificate and references: See What Volunteers Get above.
This video provides a glimpse of what our Processing Support Officers do during their shifts at our Processing Centre in Canterbury.
Our International Volunteer Programme is a 12-month programme for international applicants who wish to volunteer with Books2Africa in the UK and require a UK Temporary Work – Charity Worker visa. Applicants must meet our eligibility requirements, have sufficient funds to support and maintain themselves in the UK for 12 months, and submit an online application for review by our Recruitment Team.
Learn more and apply
We try our best to get your order to you as soon as possible. After dispatch, our standard delivery (Royal Mail First Class) typically arrives the next day in the UK (but can take up to 7 days), in 6 days to the EU and 10 days worldwide. It is important to note that delivery times are out of our control, as we do not deliver the goods ourselves.
If the error is ours, we will reprint free of charge. If the error is yours, we will reprint for 25% of the original amount. If we have sent you the wrong size garment, we will absolutely remake it for you in the right size when you return it.
The guidance measurements given next to the shirts are supposed to represent what size person they fit. They are not the actual measurements of the garment itself, which naturally need to be larger than the person they are designed to fit.
Firstly, please ignore the washing instructions in the garment itself. These are for blank garments and not printed ones.
Wash your shirts at 40 degrees or less. Iron on reverse (cool). Do not tumble dry.
Whilst Royal Mail normally deliver all first class post within 1-2 working days, they can on occasion take longer. In the unlikely event that your goods do not arrive, allow 7 days before calling us. We cannot authorise any remakes before this time has passed as Royal Mail have been known to deliver within this time.
However, if you paid to have Express delivery, contact us immediately as we can provide you with the tracking reference to chase it with the carrier.
