Dear all,

We are pleased to inform you that the “Books for Eritrea” campaign has been completed successfully.   As planned, the 20ft container filled with books and other materials was sent to Eritrea on Monday the 31 of July 2006.

On the last day alone 5560 Books were collected from various places,
sorted, packed and labelled by volunteers.  What had appeared to be an impossible task was completed successfully through sheer determination and hard work.  The 15 or so volunteers worked with zeal and enthusiasm until 9:00 pm in the evening to ensure that all was ready for shipment.  The atmosphere was great and the achievement far exceeded all expectations. These same youth returned back the next day to load many boxes of heavy
books and other materials in to the container.  Photos will be
forwarded in due course.

We have managed to collect all kinds of books: paperback and hard
cover, fiction and non-fiction, elementary to university level text books, reference books, medical books, books on hobbies, etc.  In addition, we have made an effort in collecting large amount of reading books for children in a hope that it will encourage reading.

In total, 405 boxes containing 19,095 books and some magazines
were sent to Eritrea.  This is almost twice as much as what was
planned. Of these, 57.3% will be given to the Ministry of Education for them to distribute to schools and libraries as they see fit.  The new Edaga Hamus, Embagaliano and Hazhaz Public Library (EHEC) will receive 17.4%. Barantu Library will get 15% and Mai Nefhi Institute of Science and Technology will receive 4%.  The remaining books will be distributed to others.  The breakdown can be viewed on our website under http://www.eritrea.co.uk/books-for-eritrea/book-register.

Although the final account has not been settled yet, the cost of the
drive stands at £2918.49.  This of course does not include all costs covered by volunteers for travel and other expenses.  The cost comprise of £2580  for shipment, paid to Golden Wing Shipping Agency who provided the cheapest of 3 quotes. £140 was paid to Gazelle Couriers of Reading for transporting over 3000 books from the University of Reading.  £135 was paid to Safestore for storage of books as the room provided by the Embassy was full.  The remaining £61.49 was used for such expenses as refreshments, stationery, congestion and minicab charges.  Breakdown of our final account is also on the website at http://www.eritrea.co.uk/books-for-eritrea/ under Finance.  Receipts can be provided on request.

Out of the £2910.38 pledged so far, only £1595.38 has been paid and we are still awaiting payment of the remaining £1265.  May we take this opportunity to kindly ask all those who made pledges to make the payment so that organisers will not be left out of pocket.

It is appropriate for us to thank all organisations and individuals who
made it possible for us to undertake the challenge.  Letters have
already been sent to those who made large book donations.  The youth’s participation towards the end of the campaign was superb and the fact that we have such committed youth should give hope to future organisers. Apart from those whose names we have mentioned in the past as donating books and helping with the collection, many others worked behind the scene to get the job done in a timely manner. One person that was instrumental in getting the campaign started and progressed well is Seble Ephrem, who is the Chairperson of the Eritrean Relief Association.   Seble participated in every aspect of the drive including packaging during most weekends. Her timely 'thank you' letter to book donors triggered more calls and offers of books to an extent that we could hardly cope.   Yerga Tewolde
put a lot of effort in coordinating the campaign and helping with
packing in addition to her daily work.  She accepted and dealt with all our requests without any complaints or objections.  Abdu Naib saved us a lot of money by contributing materials that were necessary for packaging. Saleh Abdela provided us with access to the Embassy whenever requested including at odd hours.   Kaleab Arefaine helped with collecting and unloading books. The Embassy staff put up with a lot of inconveniences caused by the campaign.  No other Embassy would allow an invasion to such scale and for this, we thank the Embassy and the staff for their patience and support.  There are of course many others who contributed to the successful completion of the campaign.

We also thank ERA, the British Council and many of you for making
financial contributions. AGE also appreciated working hand-in-hand with our sisterly organisations; the Eritrean Youth Association in the UK and ERA for the benefit of Eritrea.

Finally, we would like to draw lessons from this drive so that future
campaigns can be organised better.  For comments and constructive
criticisms, please e-mail us at age@eritrea.co.uk.

Once again, thank you for your support.