It’s that wonderful time of year again, when we get to learn how the previous year’s Community Reading Award winners have put their project plans into action and how books have made great things happen! 

The Book Aid International Community Reading Award (CRA) is a modest grant which affords librarians and our partners an opportunity to get much needed reading materials into the hands of community members who cannot get to a public or community library. Projects are designed with key people in mind, books are donated and books from African publishers are purchased, training is given, and monitoring support is provided. The results show the incredible power of books and reading. 

Communities may be prevented from easily accessing books for a wide range of reasons. Local libraries do not exist or are too far away to get to; their books may be old and not relevant to the needs of the readers; library fees may be involved in accessing books. These are all barriers that prevent readers from reading, but with careful thought, innovation, partner skill and some funding, we are changing that. 

In 2024, eleven winners from 7 countries identified a range of community members in need of finding books to study or just enjoy reading for fun. They included children in orphanages with old books in need of replacement, young men looking to study in a Correctional facility and young mothers needing encouragement to read to their toddlers at home. 

Each intervention was tailored to exactly what readers wanted, and the impact was encouraging and heart-warming. A library has been revived becoming a new meeting place for community members; new interest in Adult literacy lessons has been observed; young inmates have increased the time they spend reading because new interesting books are on offer and children are using STEM-related words and concepts from their new understanding. And these are only some of the changes that have occurred because of the projects and the books. 

My children have been coming late home telling that they were at the library!

Feedback from a parent whose children have been using the Library at the Centre of the Village, a new community library set up at Kasaamu Junior school, Uganda 

More than five thousand children were engaged in the projects; more than 100 adults trained in book management, lending systems and reading promotion activities and more than 1600 African-published books purchased. 

We would like to thank the winners of the awards for the opportunity to collaborate with them and players of the People’s Postcode Lottery for supporting the awards. We look forward to hearing from our partners about yet more exciting projects for the 2025 Community Reading Awards.