Walking Books brings library services to children in remote areas who would otherwise not have access to books. We collect, sort, ship, and distribute books to our partners in Africa, Asia, and South America. The mobile libraries are brought to the remote areas by our partner volunteers who use camels, donkeys, elephants, boats, bicycle, rickshaw, becak, truck, van, or train so children can enjoy reading them. Walking Books is a program of Lil’ MDGs.
Walking Books’ mission is to bring the gift of reading to children in remote parts of the world who would otherwise not have access to them. Our goal is to increase literacy among underprivileged children in remote areas and get a book into the hands of every child who is hungry to read.
Last year we learned about a camel-borne library in Kenya that volunteers use to bring library books to semi-nomadic impoverished children in remote areas. Our team collected books and funds to support the camel-borne library. We were so inspired by this and we wanted to learn about how else books may be brought to children in remote areas. We learned from our cousin that volunteers bring books to remote areas with the help of donkeys, elephants, bicycle, tricycle, boats, horses, reindeers, and automobiles. We thought about how lucky we were to be able to choose from a lot of books to read daily and we were so inspired to do something to help bring books to children in remote areas who would otherwise not be able to enjoy the joy of reading. With help from our older cousins we connected with librarians and volunteers of mobile libraries in several countries and decided to start collecting books and funds to support them.
Walking Books appreciates and welcomes all donations. In sending books to our partners, the largest expense for us is shipping. Walking Books donates the books for the shipments but our recipients or their supporters worldwide pay the shipping costs. Some of our recipients have little means of raising the money to ship a container and they have very few connections to request financial support for the shipment. In such cases, your donation helps us defray the high shipping costs and enables Walking Books to continue to ship books to children worldwide who are eager to read and learn. Please remember that a small donation of just 50 cents to a dollar can ship a book to a child in need in most countries.
Donate by check: If you prefer to make your donation by check, you can send a check made out to Lil’ MDGs. Please indicate the project you would like to donate to in the memo line. Checks should be mailed to: Lil’ MDGs
Attn: Walking Books Program - P.O. Box 25 . East Derry . NH 03041
Donate online
general guidelines:
- Please send new or almost new books only. Although any book would be a good read, we suggest selecting books that you would love to receive yourself!
- Postage is expensive. You can mail books by surface mail (boat) which is slower but cheaper. You might even find a local business, or your school, to sponsor the cost of shipping the books.
- If you mail books, please do not send boxes that weigh more than 50 pounds and do not include any packing materials such as newspaper, plastic wrap. and peanuts. Use heavy duty plastic tape on the corner when packing the boxes.
walking books accepts:
- Fiction and non-fiction reading books in soft and hard cover in English, French, Spanish, and Swahili.
- School/office supplies—paper, pencils, pens, wall charts, maps, etc.
- Dictionaries in English, French, Spanish.
- Books should be new or gently used.
walking books does not accept:
- Journals or magazines.
- Home decorating, wedding, or cookbooks.
- Books in foreign language other than French, Spanish, or Swahili.
- Books in American history or Civics.
- Music books
If you would like to hold a book drive and send your collection directly to countries where they are needed, please use the following information:
Azerbaijan (French and English books)
TUTU Children's Cultural Center 127, Narimanov Ave., apt. 41, Baku AZ1006 Azerbaijan
India (English)
Jamyang Bhutia c/o Sikkim Himalayan Academy P.O. Bhuriakhop Bhuriakhop Busty West Sikkim 737121 INDIA
Kenya (English, Swahili)
Consolata or Pascal, PO Box 5618 Maweni Village, Diani Beach, Kenya, Africa
Mongolia (English)
Jambyn Dashdondog P.O. Box 2106 – 46/47 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Himaljoti Community School (English)
Dhulikhel Municipality, 1 Bhattidada, Kavre, Nepal
Perú (Spanish)
Roca y Bologna 633, Miraflores Lima 18 Peru
Thailand
The Train Library Project Railway Police Division Royal Thai Police Noppawong, Rong Muang Patumwan, Bangkok 10330 Thailand ::
Jasper Kids Foundation JJ, Junya & Ethan Hwang P.O. Box 40 Wiang Pa Pao, Chiang Rai 57170 Thailand ::
Mon Village School, Attn. Blai Baan Tahsao, Amphur Saiyoke, Kanchanaburi 70150 Thailand
If you are shipping books overseas directly, please send us your story
and we will share it with our readers! Thank you!
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Our fundraising ideas to make change will help raise both funds and awareness for your cause. Please review our list and choose the idea that appeals to you the most. Please go here to learn about how to send us the funds you raise.
Food Fundraisers :: Music Fundraisers :: Holiday/Special Occasion Fundraisers :: Event/Activity Fundraisers :: Sports Fundraisers :: School Fundraisers :: Craft Fundraisers :: Action Fundraisers :: General Fundraisers
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Want to help Walking Books? We can send you our “Walking Books” presentation with information and photos that you can share with your school, friends, and your community. For a copy of this presentation as well as additional information on collecting books, raising funds, and sending the books please e-mail us and someone will contact you promptly.
Don’t forget to share your story with us. With this information,
we can create more buzz and support for your work
while inspiring other children to
follow in your footsteps.
Libraries in some countries move from place to place to bring library services to children who would otherwise not be able to read them. Sometimes the books are transported in an automobile, but traveling library services can also be operated without a vehicle.
Click on a country below to learn more.
In Azerbaijan, we work with volunteers who bring books in trucks to refugees in 23 settlements in 7 regions of Azerbaijan. The truck visits all settlements once a week. The focus of the mobile libraries is local populations as well as other refugee children in the settlements.
In Bangladesh, we work with Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, a local organization, who uses a river-based mobile library service using indigenous boats to provide free access to books for children in impoverished remote communities.
In Brazil, we work with Robson Mendonça, the creator of the Bicicloteca. Bicicloteca provides books to homeless children who are unable to borrow books because they don’t have a permanent address.
In Colombia, we work with a Luis Soriano, a teacher at an elementary school in Colombia, who brings a modest collection of precious books, via two hard-working donkeys, to the children of Magdalena Province’s poor and violence-ridden interior. Mr. Soriano braves armed bands, drug traffickers, snakes and heat, as he brings his library on hooves to children in remote impoverished communities.
In Ethiopia, the donkey-drawn mobile library is run by Ethiopian Books for Children and Educational Foundation (EBCEF) which is also a publishing house and has produced many of the books on the shelves of the cart. The library carries books in English as well as in local Amharic and Sidama languages. The donkey carts travel to remote villages where delighted children swarm around the cart to read. There are three mobile libraries serving impoverished children in remote areas and the working donkeys wear colourful embroidered trappings, as a sign of respect, usually reserved only for riding horses. One of the donkeys, now retired, is Queen Helena and is the queen of the donkeys and the project’s mascot. She is decked out in a red silk saddle cloth, and a red & gold crown. Queen Helena currently leads a campaign to improve respect for donkeys.
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The mobile library in Ghana is operated with a truck that visits 24 schools in rural areas where access to books is extremely low. Currently the library serves 27,000 children from low-income families. In addition to lending books, the mobile library also organises various programmes such as book report contest to further motivate children to challenge themselves. In addition, we also work with the “Street Library Ghana Project” which consists of moving from village to village in order to provide books to children who have limited to no access to them. The “street library” is set up inside a tent and have a collection of books for children to choose from.
The mobile library in India is brought to children living in remote impoverished areas by volunteers in a book van or rickshaw. The van stops in multiple areas where children can choose the books to borrow and read.
The mobile library in Indonesia is brought to children living in remote impoverished areas by volunteers in a becak. The becak stops in multiple areas where children can choose the books to borrow and read.
In Kenya, twelve camels bring books in English, Somali, and Swahili daily to children in Garissa and Wajir near the unstable border with Somalia. The camels travel to four settlements per day, four days per week. The camels bring books to the semi-nomadic children who live in chronic poverty, battling drought and famine. The volunteers bring the books to the children on camel and spread them out on grass mats beneath an acacia tree, and the library patrons, often barefoot, sometimes joined by their goats or donkeys, gather with great excitement to choose their books until the next visit.
Volunteers in Laos bring books to children in remote areas on elephants. The library is stocked with hundreds of books in Lao language and the library serves thousands of kids in remote areas of Laos. Our support to the library in Laos is primarily in the form of funds so our partners can buy the books in Lao language locally.
In Mongolia, books are taken by volunteers on horses, cows, camels, reindeers, or automobiles to provide library access to children in rural areas. The volunteers travel vast expanses of the country, around Ulaanbator, with books in tow, to make books available for the nomadic groups of Mongolia. We support and work with Author Dashdondog Jamba, and founder of Mongolia Mobile Library, who brings non-fiction picture books in English or Russian to children who eagerly await them. Some of these books are also translated into Mongolian so the parents can read them to their children.
In Morocco, volunteers travel on camel backs to bring books to children in remote areas.
In Sri Lanka, volunteers bring the library to children living in remote areas with no access to libraries using a bicycle or a tricycle.
In Thailand we work with volunteers who bring books to children living in impoverished remote areas using a boat, elephant, train, motorcycle, or automobiles.
In Venezuela, the donkey-drawn mobile library is brought to disadvantaged children living in remote regions who would otherwise not have access to them.
In Zimbabwe, the donkey-drawn mobile library is brought to underprivileged children in remote area who would otherwise not have access to them.
Walking Books - A Program of Lil’ MDGs
P.O. Box 25 . East Derry . NH 03041
e-mail: info@walkingbooks.org . p: 858.215.2138 . f: 603.546.7830
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