We smashed our 3000 target in the March Book Drive thanks to you! We want to express our gratitude to all those who worked with us to ensure that this initiative was a success.
We received diverse books across different genres from books by African authors, to relevant textbooks to biographies to adventure stories and more. We also received donations from supporters that will go towards purchasing more books by African authors and relevant text books.
Whilst we continue to focus on a digital device roll-out, with apps such as Worldreader and African Storybook housed on the initial tablets delivered to Spots, our Catalysts recommended that we continue to enable access to storybooks and textbooks in both online and offline forms, hence our continued focus on basic book provision.
Fundraising:
- £543.74 was raised through EduSpots’ London dinner and associated fundraising such as a raffle, auction and item sales
- £2000 was received from two trust funds to purchase new books by African authors
- £121.25 was raised by the Sevenoaks School EduLit group through a cake sale which included raising awareness about great books by a range of African authors
- The EcoSTEM group at Wellington College raised £167.64 to support the EcoSTEM programme, including STEM resource kits.
- Book donations were sent from author Lucy Van Smit, of her book A Writers’ Journal Workbook.
With a total of £2,832.63 raised so far and an average cost per new book of £2, we will be able to purchase about 1400 books.
Book donations:
- In addition, we received a donation of 5500 new and lightly used books for primary learners from Books for Africa.
- We also collected 350 books through our book donation stations across Accra.
- Several of the Spots also ran their own collections, which we will repeat in September as part of the Spot Lead programme.
Our Impact
In 2023, we completed a study with Impact Ed on a sample of 64 learners EduLit Clubs looking at changes to their engagement with reading across a 12 month period.
Their average advancement in the validated measure ‘interest in reading for pleasure’ in (calculated by asking students a range of survey questions measuring change over time) was a significant 8.2%, with a 3.8% increase in ‘metacognition’, and ‘school engagement’ by 3.2%.
Supporting this change, an EduLit student reflected: ‘I feel more confident than before. The activities we do are a lot of fun. We learn a lot and I enjoy reading time in the Spot.”
A Catalyst commented: “They participate more in discussions and always want to contribute. They like asking questions and follow up questions.’
Book borrowing across the Spots also increased by 68.9% in 2023, with many more Spots widening access to book and resource borrowing.
Thank you!
A special shout-out to organizations that partnered with us to ensure this drive was a success in diverse ways: Books for Africa, Theia Coffee House, Impact Hub, Com_UnitySpaces, BookNook Store and Booksie Bookshop and to everyone who supported our activities, collections and fundraising.
Your support will go a long way towards fostering a love of reading in students in our Spots and the books by African authors will act as mirrors reflecting their reality while also being windows to a world full of possibilities.
Looking Ahead:
Stay tuned for more exciting literacy initiatives coming your way from EduSpots!
In the meantime, if you would still like to still support our book collection, please do not hesitate to contact Cat Davison at cdavison@eduspots.org or drop a donation here.
Thank you once again for supporting us in driving community-led change through education!
