"A new chapter of hope" - the CODEP Build on Books Appeal

In November 2008, Joan Smith, the novelist, essayist, columnist and campaigner for human rights, published a short article in the Times. With that article, as part of CODEP’s literacy campaign, we launched the Build on Books appeal – an initiative to collect unwanted books from across the UK and donate them to schools and educational establishments in the Western Rural district of Sierra Leone, which covers Waterloo. Joan was also part of the CODEP team that recently visited Waterloo for the ground-breaking ceremony.

Joan has written another article, published today – 27 February 2010 – in The Times. In that article she has, amongst many stories, written about her visit to the Bread of Life school, where the children crowded round her in their excitement to show her the books that had been donated to their school.

She also spoke with their headmaster, John Kamara, who told Joan that:“We distribute the books everyday. The children love them. It makes a huge difference -it makes them eager to come to school.

To read Joan’s article in full, why not buy the Times today or go to the Times website.

We hope that this article will serve to relaunch the CODEP Build On Books Appeal so that we can send at least a further 500,000 books to Sierra Leone this year.

There is also a slide show of some of the photos taken by Felicity “Fidd” Thompson. Please click here to look at the photos.

If you want further information about the BOB Appeal, please click here or email Claire and her team at bob@codep.co.uk.