Malawi Book Drive - latest news

We’re almost at 2,000 books! 

The last two weeks have been very exciting.  The children from Caerleon School, Newport gave over 200 books and kindly donated their pocket money – an amazing £100 towards the appeal.  A really big thanks to teacher Suzanne Price (previous Book Bus volunteer) and the delightful children – it was a real pleasure to meet them.

We visited The Book Barn, Hallatrow www.bookbarninternational.co.uk which was an extraordinary experience; the UK’s largest second-hand bookshop, wall to ceiling, stacks and stacks and stacks!  The owners have agreed a donation which is going to boost the numbers!  On Wednesday 1st June we’ll be holding a children’s storytelling event from 11 – 12.30 and painting a mural in the Book Barn café in the afternoon.  Join us if you’re near!

The deadline for the shipment is drawing nearer, 1st July.   Any support given will make a difference.  Almost half way and time is ticking. 

I need your help people!  3,000 to go – whoop-whoop!


Diane Maybey

BISEE Book Bus Update

BISEE Book Bus Update, from Jenny Ávila, Volunteer Co-ordinater

The BISEE Book Bus continues working for the improvement of life through stories and fairy tales.  Children really enjoy the visits of the bus to their schools.  In April we had a few days in the Interactive Museum of Sciences.  This involved two Saturdays reading to 150 children and 150 young people.  It was an interesting experience, new to us but we had a good group of enthusiastic volunteers.

During April we also read at SEK School.  We had about 40 children writing their own stories and reading to younger ones of the same school.  They are going to donate these stories to the BISEE Book Bus. 

In May we started to build reading corners in the schools we have worked with in the last 3 months.  The headteachers of the school were very grateful. We also had a young writer who offered to train teachers or the person responsible for the corner, how to use the books and get the best of them. 

Last weekend we had “Maratón del Cuento”  a reading event dedicated to young children. For this event we recreated the BISEE book bus. For the first day we collected a little bit of creative material and children donated their drawings.  The second day our stand became a real reading corner.  We had families reading together and we let the children choose their own stories to read or have someone reading for them.  It was such a wonderful experience and a really good opportunity to let people know about the project.  We had one of the most popular writers of Italy, Anna Lavatelli reading on the bus for a few families that joined us.  It was also very exciting to meet a boy, 7 years old, who visited the bus with his mum. After listening to the stories of the bus and the history of it he told us he wanted to be a volunteer that moment and we gathered a group of families and Erick (his name) read for them.  He is willing to come and volunteer again if we have another time reading in Pichincha.  He also wanted to come with us one of the days to help us with the reading corner.  The weekend was so busy that we had the visit of about 2,000 children and their families. 

Last week writers from different countries got together to share their experiences and we had the chance to have them all on our bus.  They donated their books and were incredibly happy to know that this book bus is present in Ecuador.  We met 2 writers carrying out a similar project.  One was a Spanish writer who has a book bus in the Sahara and we were delighted learn about his project.  He gave us great insights to improve and develop more things about the project. 

In June we will continue the reading in the Museum.  We are also going to have the British embassy doing the reading corner this month together with one of the tour operators of Quito.  We also contacted some skilful children last weekend to join us to make the reading corners together with their families. 

This is so far all what we are doing with the BISEE Book Bus.

Book in every Hand Appeal - update

The books are slowly gathering up in the attic space above the office in Warwick.  It’s amazing to see how a single book given adds to a pile, and each pile then contributes to the target of 5,000 books that we aim to collect for this year’s ‘A Book in Every Hand’ Malawi, appeal.  Whether it is one book or 100 books given, it is making a difference and is symbolic of the individual impact these books will have when we give a book to children in Malawi.

The public response has been very positive, over 1,267 books collected so far.  We’ve received donations from previous volunteers on The Book Bus.  The Federation of Children’s Book Groups gave generously at their annual conference.  The customers of Warwick and Kenilworth Books have been very giving, with owners Frances and Keith and staff supporting the collection.

This week we have written to all schools in Warwick, Leamington and Kenilworth to invite our local school children and school communities to contribute to the collection.  Many thanks to Barfords a local removal firm (www.barfordsremovals.com) who have generously provided over 30 boxes ideal for the packing, DHL are supporting the shipment, so really excellent support.

If you have 1 book or 100 books to donate, I can assure you that it will make a difference.  5,000 books – we can do this!


For further information see our  Book in Every Hand appeal

Diane Maybey
Office Volunteer