We prioritise sending brand new, carefully selected books to refugees both throughout and beyond Africa, and through the support of our publishing partners we provide books ranging from phonics books in Arabic to fantasy novels to medical texts.

Supporting Syrian refugees in Jordan

More than five million Syrians have been forced to flee conflict in their home country and seek shelter in neighbouring countries like Jordan which now hosts around 700,000 displaced Syrians. Jordan is the second most water-poor country in the world and the large influx of refugees has put further strain on the country.

In 2018, we sent 2,591 brand new books to support international NGO Mercy Corps’s work in Jordan. The books are being used to help fill a new public library in the Za’atari Refugee Camp and to enrich six local community libraries which will benefit Syrian refugees as well as vulnerable Jordanians.

Reaching Syrian refugees in Lebanon

Lebanon hosts more Syrian refugees than any other country except for Turkey. The influx is so profound that refugees now make up 25% of the country’s population of 4.4 million. According to the UN, Lebanon has the highest per-capita concentration of refugees anywhere in the world.

In 2017, we sent 1,899 children’s books including Arabic readers, teacher training manuals and English as a Second Language books to our partner in the country, Jusoor Syria. Jusoor’s mission is to help Syrian youth realize their potential through programs in the fields of education, career development, and global community engagement. These books will give young readers a critical opportunity to keep learning despite their displacement.

Supporting displaced people in Greece

In Greece, refugees seeking safety from wars at home continue to arrive every week. When they reach Greece, they are supported by a network of small NGOs, many of which operate on a shoe-string and in difficult conditions.

These inspiring organsiations provide the opportunity for refugees to return to education, to begin to learn English and to find a safe space which offers refuge from the day to day realities of camp life.

In 2018, we worked with seven of these grassroots organisations to support refugees, providing 5,669 books for all ages to community libraries, classrooms and mobile libraries to help displaced people begin to write the next chapter.

Reaching some of the world’s largest refugee camps

Dadaab refugee camp, in Garissa Province, Kenya was started in 1992 and and has a population of around 320,000 people. Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana Province, Kenya was established in 1991 and has an estimated population of around 180,000 people. Both camps are amongst the largest and oldest refugee camps in the world.

Windle Trust International – Kenya provides secondary education for all of the refugees in both camps, and we provide books to allow the NGO to create school libraries and community libraries full of beautiful, relevant books that will help refugees succeed in education. Most of the library visitors – from young children to mature students – have no access to books and reading material anywhere else in the camp and the new library provides a rare, reliable and accessible source of information.

The books we provide range from picture books for the children to university level textbooks for students, are literally a lifeline for many people. To date, we have sent well in excess of 100,000 books to the camps.

We also run our Reading for all programme in Kakuma’s primary and secondary schools. Find out more