Help Me Give 3,500 Books a New Home in Cameroon!

In 2011, I co-authored "Pedagogy of autonomy in difficult circumstances: from practice to principles" in which I described and reflected on my experience, in the late 1990s to early 2000s of teaching 232 students in a classroom designed for 60, in temperatures exceeding 42°C, with very limited resources for students to use. That was my experience as a young teacher in Maroua, a town in the Far-North of Cameroon. More than 25 years later, students and lecturers in the region still face a desperate shortage of academic resources.

Earlier this year, I set myself a modest challenge to collect 1,000 books for the library of the University of Maroua. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of colleagues across ten UK universities and retired academics, that dream has grown beyond my wildest expectations! I now have 3,500 academic books and journals, with an estimated value of up to £250,000, ready to transform learning opportunities in Cameroon.

But there is one final hurdle: getting the books there! The books are packed into 60 boxes, ready for shipment. Transporting them to Cameroon will cost approximately £4,800, that is, £80 per box or £1200 per shipping pallet of 15 boxes.

This is where YOU can make a difference!

• £20 contributes towards shipping a box.

• £40 sponsors half a box.

• £80 sends an entire box of books.

• £160 sends TWO boxes, doubling your impact!

The books have been donated. The dream is within reach. Now I need your help to deliver it. Every donation, however small, brings these books closer to students who urgently need them. The Leadership of the University of Maroua has agreed to collect the books from the port in Cameroon and transport them up north to campus. I have also committed to visit the University early next year to see that the books are safely on library shelves and to run a series of workshops with academics and students of the University.

Please sponsor a box, donate whatever you can, and share this appeal. Together, let's turn donated books into opportunities, knowledge and brighter futures! Thank you for helping give these books a new home where they will be treasured for generations.