Reading Around the Reserve
With our partner African Parks, we’re helping to boost education and conservation in protected areas of Africa.
Without books, education and the environment suffer
African Parks works in countries from Angola to Zimbabwe, supporting communities to care for their local environment and wildlife.
They know that an educated community is far more able to make better choices for the natural world, so they support hundreds of schools around the protected areas they manage.
We’ve joined forces with African Parks to bring books to the schools of thousands of children around these important reserves through our Reading Around the Reserve programme.
The power of Reading Around the Reserve
Reading Around the Reserve provides book box libraries in schools, each stocked with 200 brand new, carefully selected books donated from the UK. We also provide a grant so schools can buy more books locally and along with cupboards to store the books.
Teachers and head teachers in participating schools also receive training in how to run a school library and use books to enrich classroom learning.
By improving the quality of education children receive, Reading Around the Reserve helps children safeguard their environments and build a more sustainable future.
Related SDGs:
SDG 4
Quality Education
SDG 10
Reduced inequality
SDG 15
Life on land
Impact since 2020
233,445
Students benefitting
320
Book Box Libraries created in schools
7
Reserves participating
Meeting a global challenge
Reading Around the Reserve has brought books to the classrooms of more than 40,000 students aroundThe Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve in Malawi – and the impact will go far beyond their classrooms:
The challenges we face are global, and we must educate the next generation on the importance of conservation. These wonderful books will help us to show young people here in our communities that our world is beautiful and fragile, and that we have a shared responsibility for its future.
Samuel Kamoto, African Parks Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve Park Manager, Malawi

What Reading Around the Reserve delivers
- Libraries are set up in schools around wildlife reserves for the first time
- Teachers become more confident using books in the classroom
- Children grow in confidence as their reading improves
- The quality of education children receive improves, as does their reading confidence
Fund this project
It costs £2,800 to open the next Reading Around the Reserve library
Find out more about our charity
Our mission and vision
Our vision is a world where everyone has access to books that will enrich, improve and change their lives.
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At Book Aid International all the income we receive is from voluntary donations – we receive no government grants.
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