In March 2020, 165 countries closed all their schools due to Covid-19, affecting nearly 1.5 billion learners and 63 million primary and secondary school teachers. These closures pose unprecedented challenges for education systems throughout the world. The impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic has already affected children benefitting from The Book Bus projects in Zambia. The highly successful Book Bus I am a Reader programme for primary school children in Zambia was paused on 20 March 2020. After almost a whole year of school closures, we are preparing to reinstate our I am a Reader project in 20 schools in the city of Kitwe.

The Book Bus fleet and their crews will be back on the road to distribute books, create reading corners and build libraries. They will be supporting parents and teachers to ensure that the children not only have access to books but feel inspired to read, enjoy and learn from them. Our work is helping to tackle the global literacy crisis, enabling children to gain life-changing skills so they can enjoy a brighter future and escape the cycle of poverty.

Every year The Book Bus sends a container of donated books and resources from the UK to Zambia. In 2020 we sent over 10,000 books and many boxes of teaching resources to help our Book Bus teams reach out to over 3200 children in Kitwe. We are aiming to send a similar number of books in 2021. The cost of collecting and delivering these valuable resources to Zambia is £1,500. Please support this appeal and help us get another 3,200 children reading.

Find out more about the Book Bus and see how exciting books are for children in communities where libraries are rare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyRSy3X2szU

We are aiming to get 10,000+ children reading by 2022 with our I am a Reader campaign. We can't do this without you.