The Book and 10 Pence
We are especially proud of the "Book and 10 Pence" because of the involvement of children and young people in overcoming the legacy of apartheid. The books are used to set up school libraries and the 10 pences help with the cost. Though adults need to be involved, children and young people have supplied the books and the 10 pences for the most part, and often ran the campaign.

Thank you from South Africa
Your contributions are appreciated, here are just a couple of the letters we have received about the books.

Olive Goll, the Director of ERIC (Education Resource and Information Centre) sent an e-mail which typifies the reaction to the books we send,

" I wish you could have been here to see the reaction of the pupils and teachers to the books we have taken to the schools in the last week... The books are wonderful, in excellent condition, well packed and labelled. So a big thank you to all concerned for making this possible. "

ERIC helps to train teachers and co-ordinates rotation of the library books to 132 schools in the area.

A teacher's experience
ERIC also has a project which allows teachers from this country to work with teachers in South Africa. Abigail Williams, a teacher from London, got involved in the project. Her school, Vicarage Primary, had taken part in our campaign and she was able to see for herself the effect of the campaign in South Africa.

" I was able to photograph the journey of our books from my school to the TREE ( Training and Resources for Early Education ) Centre, collect the books, sorting and delivering them to schools, to teachers and then using them with the children in the classroom! It is fantastic to see the faces of the teachers and the children when we support them. "

It is important to share
As more people in South Africa have become aware of our campaign and more schools want to get involved, we have encouraged the schools in South Africa to get together to take part.

Co-operation between schools allows more young people to get access to books. The campaign is not just about getting reading material to young people but providing exciting, informative, colourful books they will enjoy reading and giving them a choice of material. We want the books to inspire children and allow them to flourish.

Schools clubbing together has allowed us to provide a greater variety of books to more children and young people.

Young people at the forefront
The majority of the books we have received have come from schools and young peoples' organisations and many young people have shown amazing ingenuity in making the campaign work.

Pupils in year 13 at St Patrick's Girls' Academy in Dungannon, Northern Ireland formed a committee to organise the campaign.

Claire McAleer, a Year 13 pupil wrote for the 2000 Yearbook, " Looking back we saturated the school with our advertising material. This plan seemed to work however and people started talking. A general note of confusion was heard..... ' What on earth is the 10 pence for? ' the suspense was allowed to gather...... before our group went round the the classes to explain the idea behind our cryptic posters. " The suspense seemed to work, they collected over 1,000 books and 110.40!

Pupils at Maghull High School, in Sefton, decided to hold a raffle to raise the money. A group of the pupils went round all the local businesses and asked if they would donate prizes. There were prizes ranging from watches to cuddly toys. They sold raffle tickets to teachers and staff as well as their fellow pupils. They easily raised the money to cover the 10 pences for all 1,112 books donated by the pupils.

Second time around
We now have schools and local authorities that are doing the campaign for the second time.

Wirrall Education Department decided to do the campaign for a second time during March and April 2000. This time 16 primary and 11 secondary schools took part in the campaign collecting more than 10,000 books and 1,161.85. This was a staggering amount and double the 5,000 books they collected in the first collection in 1997.

Camden LA this time collected over 19,000 books compared to over 1,000 books they collected a couple of years ago. This was due in no small way to the efforts of Councillor Nirmal Roy, Education Director R.J. Litchfield and Michael Thompson.

Edensor High School in Stoke on Trent has also collected books for the second time. They collected another 296 books and 29.60 for the campaign.

These are just a few examples of schools that have taken part, though there are many more, there is not enough space to mention them all.

Remember you will receive a certificate of gratitude after your organisation takes part, if you have not received one yet get in touch.

We need your financial help.
Please donate to this project or please donate to Community H.E.A.R.T. for use where your contribution is most needed. Click Here to Donate.