Our Literacy Partners
READ International
READ International have been one of our UK charity partners since we launched in 2008.
READ is an almost entirely student-volunteer-led organisation. They deliver collaborative, student-led initiatives to improve access to education across the world and increase youth participation in the global community. Their flagship project is the READ Book Project. Through a community of student-run projects, they mobilise university students to collect disused textbooks, stationery and sports equipment from UK schools, colleges and universities.
These resources are then sorted by their volunteers to find the best quality, most relevant and up-to-date materials to be sent to schools in Tanzania and Uganda. Any collected books that are not suitable to be sent to Tanzania are sold online by Better World Books in support of READ. More information about this partnership and how you can donate your books can be found on the Better World Books at Your University page.
READ International's student volunteers also give presentations to school pupils to promote student volunteering, young social enterprise, recycling and global citizenship. Their operating model is simple and low-cost and makes best use of a large supply of motivated, enterprising, and enthusiastic voluntary labour. To date, READ Book Projects have donated over 550 000 textbooks to 550 Tanzanian secondary schools and thirteen regional libraries. Find out more about their work at www.readinternational.org.uk.
"We’re so excited about our partnership with Better World Books because it enables us to extract the most value from all the books we collect. This wonderful partnership allows books that are not suitable for schools in Tanzania to be sold online, generating much needed funding. Better World Books also use our sorting criteria in their own warehouse, sending any of their surplus books that could be used in Tanzania to us. Thank you Better World Books!"
– Robert Wilson, Director, READ International
READ INTERNATIONAL Registered Charity Number: 1128534. A company registered in England and Wales No. 6317982 Registered Name: Recycling Education Allowing Development (READ) International