Do you ever wonder about what happened to your old school text books? Probably not. But if you did ever give it some thought, you might presume that our unloved and unwanted school text books would be either binned or pulped. This may well have been the case in the past, but an organisation based in Liverpool is working hard to see that unused school text books and other equipment from across Merseyside is collected together and re-distributed in one of the poorest countries in the world. Tanzania is one of the world’s poorest nation and educational resources are scarce - children in most classrooms have to share one book between many students. Due to the way syllabuses in Tanzania mirror the old English system defunct course books are perfect to help bridge this gap. “You think about it, and you think about when you were in school and you had all these books around you and you didn’t really care about them much, and you probably took them massively for granted," says Kate Potter, fundraiser for the Tanzanian Book Appeal at John Moores University.
 | | Books ready to be sent to Tanzania |
"And then you think about how in a really poor country they really want to learn, but they have no resources. "It just makes sense that if there are so many books gathering dust in Britain we should send them to somewhere that really needs them. “Due to the nature of the way their education system works our old text books are perfect for them. English is a really important language in Tanzania - all secondary education is done in English. And best of all their secondary education is taught following our old ‘O‘ and ‘A‘ Level syllabus.” The Tanzanian Book Appeal would be nothing without the help and support of schools across Merseyside, many of whom have been involved in fundraising activities as well as donating old books. Students in Year 10 at Rock Ferry High became involved when their form teacher Mr Cassidy heard about the appeal. “We didn’t really know much about Tanzania until we became involved with the project,” said Jake, one of the students involved. “But our teacher Mr Cassidy has told us all about it, and now we know stuff we didn’t know before, like that Tanzania is the fourth poorest country in the world, and that there are up to 40 pupils sharing one text book.
 | | A book barrow comes in handy! |
“We thought it was a good idea to get involved because it just makes good sense to send over the books we don’t need anymore to a poor country that could use them,” added fellow classmate Richard. “We did a raffle for some prizes like DVDs and chocolate and stuff. The tickets were 20p each but when it was all added up we had raised £88. We were pretty pleased with that.” It costs fifty pence per book to make the shipment to Tanzania, so the students at Rock Ferry have raised enough cash to get an impressive 176 books over to children who really want them. Once the books have been donated they are collected by truck and then taken to a holding warehouse - which was donated by a local business - sorted through and stored. This summer they will be packed up and shipped off to Tanzania in a big container. The students from John Moores who have worked on the project will then fly out to meet the books out there. “The government in Tanzania have been kind enough to loan us government vehicles to sort out the distribution once we get there," says Kate Potter. "We will be touring the schools in the Kagera region which is near Lake Victoria. We’ve never been to Tanzania before but hopefully it will all go well. We can’t wait! We're just so pleased with what the students here have achieved.” Books are a necessity for education, but up to 113 million children worldwide do not have access to them. Follow the link at the top of the page to find out how you can get recycling and make a real difference to children's lives with the Tanzanian Book Appeal. | 
