Responding when books are lost

Whenever books are lost, learning is threatened 

We live in an increasingly unstable world, where climate change is fuelling disasters and conflict is affecting more people than at any time since World War Two.  

Too often during war books become targets, and as communities rebuild restoring collections can be pushed down the priority list.  

Yet for those living through emergencies, access to books is vital. Books provide a chance to continue learning even when schools are closed and to find a moment’s respite when the worst happens.  

So we work with our partners to restore book collections that are lost, and to provide books to people living through crises. 

Responding to disaster and conflict 

In years past we have restocked libraries flooded by cyclones and hurricanes, replaced books damaged by volcanic ash and helped rebuild collections destroyed in conflicts.  

In Cameroon, we have been working with our partners to provide Discovery Book Boxes to support children’s reading there since the conflict in the country’s Northwest and Southwest regions began in 2016.  

In Mosul, we provided 51,532 books to help restock the University of Mosul’s library shelves after I.S. deliberately burnt it to the ground in 2014.  

And in Ukraine, we are working with PEN Ukraine to supply brand-new books to libraries which have been damaged in Russia’s full scale war. To date, we’ve provided 70,794 books.