Another book drive, another day. The February-edition Reading Spots book drive was a roaring success! In total 60 boxes were sent over, roughly equivalent to 5,000 books. We could not be happier! Many thanks to all the wonderful donations from Windlesham School, Handcross Park and Brighton College. It was clear that many of the books had been childhood favourites, so all of us from the Ghana team are very grateful for helping many children over there experience the same emotions while reading titles like ‘Elmer the Patchwork Elephant’, the ‘Harry Potter’ series and ‘The Gruffalo’.

But, we also received lots of fiction for adults, as everyone will be using the libraries these books are in. In Ghana, people of all ages really enjoy the act of reading. Entering other worlds is a source of great enjoyment. Yet, this is not to say that we had no non-fiction. Fortunately, we received lots of science books, and on top of that a few came with numerous duplicates. This will be incredibly useful, as these can be used to supplement learning, and when we have duplicates we can use them for book clubs. We all get rather excited when we see a set of duplicate books!

This may also be a bit surprising, but books are not all there is to see this year. For we are now in the process of sending of 4 computers, 2 printers and a drum kit to Ghana! Although I think the drum kit will be staying far away from the libraries…

Personally, being involved with the Ghana team this year has been amazing, and I’m looking forward to unpacking these books (and maybe drum kit?!) when, together with Team 3, we set off to libraries around the country at Easter. You definitely haven’t seen the last of the Ghana team, we’ve got many ideas for fundraising up our sleeves…

Oliver Hutchings, Team 3