Posted 04 January 2010 at 3:56pm by
Andrew Hardwick You may have noticed some changes in the union, namely in the shape of collection bins in the foyer of both the Manchester and Crewe Students' Union. MMUnion is collecting books for Read intl! READ International is a truly student lead campaign, began in 2004 as a group of university friends following a gap year in Tanzania, seeing the state of education they were compelled to change the world. It is in this vein of directly student led action that MMUnion's own collection scheme begun, with three students starting the project out of a simple desire as global citizens, to do something to improve the world, and now their ambition has grown into a flourishing campus campaign that has already delivered almost a thousand books.
The READ Intl book project now have 22 major Projects across the UK, READ intl has gone from strength to strength . From Being named the best new Charity of 2007, READ Intl is now really growing, with more and more universities coming on board each year, and today US!! The future has never looked brighter for READ Intl and the schools they help!
MMUnion have already made a large contribution towards this campaign in the form of all the little needed and unloved books that the union has amassed over the last thirty years and left to collect dust next to a photocopier.
MMUnion and RAG are really excited and proud to be working with READ who have shipped over 564,000 books to Tanzania and are currently supporting the renovation of dozens of school libraries working closely with the Ministry of Education to ensure that our books go to where they are most needed improving access to books.
What we really need is students to donate any old books you have in your office or at home that are of little use to yourselves, to be sent to Tanzania, anything at all! All books that can't be used in schools will be sold and the money used to help finance the work of Read Intl.
Andy Hardwick-Moss
VP Community & RAG Convenor