Donate
Who makes sure we can fuel our buses, fill them with books and get children reading?
Only you – our incredible donors.
Your donation will provide books, library spaces and training materials for teachers and help 10,000 new children become readers by 2027.
Together, here’s just what a difference we can make:
A monthly gift
£5
PER MONTH
Inspire a child to read by providing quality children’s story books for a school library.
£25
PER MONTH
Pay for half-day of classroom reading sessions for up to 160 children.
£50
PER MONTH
Help us bring the Book Bus to 10 schools by fuelling one of our buses for a week.
A one-off donation
You can use a debit or credit card through PayPal – it’s quick and easy and you don’t need a Paypal account.
Send us your donation by post
You can send cheques to us, made payable to The Book Bus Foundation, at:
The Book Bus Foundation
11 The Orchard, Montpelier Road
London
W5 2QW
(Please do not send cash in the post)
If you would like a receipt, just include your surname as the bank reference and inform us of your donation by email at info@thebookbus.org
Donate via a bank transfer
You can donate directly to our account by online bank transfer. Here are the details:
Name of account: The Book Bus Foundation
Bank: Barclays Bank
Account number: 03312909
Sort code: 20 48 08
IBAN: GB69 BUKB 2048 0803 312909
SWIFT: BUKBGB 22
Bank address:
Barclays
Leicester
LE87 2BB
Payroll Giving – donate through your salary
Also known as ‘Give As You Earn’, payroll giving is a simple way to make regular, tax-free donations.
Donate a car
Do you have an unwanted vehicle? You can use it to keep our wheels rolling through either Giveacar, a not-for-profit social enterprise, or the Charity Car scheme.
Giveacar will accept any vehicle, even if it’s not roadworthy, as well as ride-on lawnmowers, farm machinery, vans, motorbikes and lorries.
They’ll collect vehicles from anywhere in the UK, free of charge.
For more information or to book a collection visit giveacar.co.uk
Any questions?
If you have any questions, please call us 0208 099 9280 or email us at info@thebookbus.org and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
About Us
Our story
Founded in 2008 by publisher Tom Maschler, The Book Bus has grown to become a trusted partner in primary schools in Zambia.
What began as a charity for the supply of vital reading materials has developed into an organisation committed to working with local and national authorities to addresses the country’s literacy challenges.
100,000
CHILDREN
Our Zambian teachers and volunteers have ensured that 100,000 pupils now have access to fabulous books.
4
BUSES
Our Zambian team has driven more than 500,000 miles delivering books and creating inspirational reading spaces.
70%
LITERACY RATE
With help from our supporters, we aim to boost literacy from 21% to 70% at our partner schools.
Our vision
The Vision of The Book Bus is that every child achieves full literacy and builds a stronger future through learning and education.
Our mission
The Book Bus mission is to get more children reading so they can progress through school with a quality education. We do this by creating positive reading environments in schools, homes and communities where children have free access to quality books, benefit from expert teaching and receive reading support from their families. Our mission succeeds when every child grows and prospers through the joy and power of reading.
“I'm so proud of the work The Book Bus does and I'm deeply touched to be involved with this wonderful project."
“The Book Bus provides much more than just literacy – it’s opening a door to the future in an incredible way. Once you ignite curiosity – well that’s like a machine that creates its own energy and if you can get books to these children, sit with them, talk to them, read with them and develop that enthusiasm for reading, then you really don’t know what wonders that will lead to in the future.”
Sir Quentin Blake
Renowned illustrator and children’s writer
Patron of The Book Bus Foundation
Our Zambian team
Monica Mulenga – Country Director
Monica first became involved with The Book Bus Foundation as a volunteer at our UNHCR project in Zambia in 2010.
With a close understanding of local culture, tradition and the education system, Monica recognised the challenges and opportunities for The Book Bus. She has since built the project from a standing start into the effective and dynamic literacy organisation it is today.
Monica is supported by her full-time team who are based at our HQ in the city of Kitwe. They include: a graduate Literacy Coordinator, three qualified teachers, two driver/mechanics and reading mentors an office coordinator and volunteer reading mentors from the community.
Literacy Coordinator: Ms Bwalaya Chimba
Link Teachers: Mr Mulilwa Mulilwa
Ms Precious Musatila
Ms Kaela Chishimba
Driver / Mechanic: Mr Edward Sakala
Driver / Fixer: Mr Raj Mushili
Our Founder
Tom Maschler
Tom Maschler was a publisher for over four decades, working with thirteen Nobel Prize winners, nurturing writers who are now household names and originating the idea for the Booker Prize.
With a love and fascination for children’s books, Tom published Roald Dahl and paired him with Quentin Blake, whose illustrations contributed so much to the author’s books.
Tom’s inspiration to start the Book Bus came after a trip to Zambia where he saw that literacy was one of the key life skills that can take a child from poverty to prosperity.
Our Trustees
David Gordon
Jon Pennells
John Bruce
Board Secretary: Emil Kowalski
The UK Team
CEO: David Gordon
Education advisor: Professor Cathie Wallace
Child Literacy Advisors
Sanchita Basu De Sarkar: UK
Mr Bupe Mwappe: Zambia
The Book Bus Difference
What we provide – the right materials.
We are changing the perception of what literacy really means. Working with teachers and communities, children are making the crucial shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”.
Our projects follow a six-stage plan which takes a holistic and child-centred approach to working with communities, children, teachers, schools and education authorities.
And all our projects in Zambia are managed and run by local staff and our in-house team of teachers who continuously develop and adapt material we supply to our project schools.
53%
GAIN
Results taken from schools in our project schools in Zambia’s Central Province showed that the average functional literacy scores increased from 2.18 to 3.34, a percentage gain of over 53% in a year.
3x
GREATER
When comparing change in learner literacy, research showed that the amount of change in schools where we ran a project was almost 3 times greater than in one of the control schools.
£48.33
PER LEARNER
The Book Bus enrolled 1200 children and 29 teachers onto a project for 17 months. Achieving improved literacy was found to cost the equivalent of only £48.33 per learner, or £2.84 a month.
Measuring Literacy & Efficacy
The Book Bus measures learner literacy levels by using the internationally recognised Functional Literacy Assessment Tool (FLAT).
To support our goals, we invest time and resources into our management systems and processes to ensure that each of our literacy projects achieves their desired outcomes.
We do this through monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) an approach key to our success, as it reveals what works and what doesn’t. Using MEAL also helps to lower cost overall as it helps us to avoid wastage and allows us to focus funding on the activities that are truly effective.
Building on global learning
Prior to the pandemic, The Book Bus also ran literacy programmes in Malawi, Ecuador and India and learning from these programmes continues to inform our activities in Zambia today.
Our projects are supported by charities and funding partners dedicated to improving the lives of children, including the Magic Library Foundation, the Gilchrist Trust, the Ferguson Trust and the TUUT Charitable Trust, and we work with researchers as we continuously review the most effective way to empower teachers and tackle illiteracy.
A long-term commitment
The Book Bus is a well-known and well-respected organisation in Zambia. Since 2008, our buses have brought joy to children.
Cloaked in magical artwork by Sir Quentin Blake, they are packed with books and reading resources and are the cornerstone of how we engage with pupils and communities.
With your help, our teams of dedicated reading mentors can keep our buses on the road and continue to transform lives in the years ahead.
“At age 10, neither Anna or Emmanuel could read. Today, both are in university. Anna is studying medicine and Emmanuel, economics. The impact of The Book Bus on their education is truly inspiring.”
David Gordon
The Book Bus CEO
Home
Reading transforms lives. Help us continue our work in Zambia and give children hope.
Working in Zambia since 2008, The Book Bus is dedicated to improving children’s literacy. We provide books and libraries for pupils as well as critical training support for teachers.
Over 100,000 children now experience the joy of reading thanks to The Book Bus’s collaboration with schools, families and local communities. With your support, we can do so much more.
Together, we can unlock not only a world of reading pleasure but a wealth of opportunities.
Join us and help children in Zambia enjoy a brighter future.
250,000
BOOKS DISTRIBUTED
Books make a world of difference.
English is the official language of Zambian government, commerce and law. We also provide books in local languages as children find English easier to learn when they first learn to read in their mother tongue.
£48.33
PER PUPIL
It costs less than £50 per pupil to unlock reading skills.
And with our help, the percentage of pupils who achieved a ‘pass’ grade on the Functional Literacy Assessment Test score rose from 11% to 34%.
200+
SCHOOLS
Children need good teachers, and teachers need support.
The Book Bus provides training courses, reading schemes and workshops to give teachers the key skills they need to help pupils learn.
“Education is the game changer. Addressing child literacy will help us dismantle gender inequalities as well as poverty.”
Monica Mulenga
Country Director
There is a global literacy crisis and UNESCO estimates that 250 million children are unable to read despite attending school.
Illiteracy impacts girls disproportionately. While 7 in 10 men can read, only half of women can do so and the Book Bus is committed to providing safe and supportive spaces for girls to learn.
For girls in Zambia, school can be the difference between being pregnant at 12 and being able to lead a life full of opportunities.
Book Bus Holiday Clubs
As well as working throughout term times, we provide Book Bus Holiday Clubs which give children a safe place to learn, play and develop confidence.
With your support we can extend our offer of free access to children’s literature including books that celebrate gender equality within the community.
These books are not mere stories – they are gateways to new possibilities, igniting a love for reading while highlighting the importance of equal opportunities for all.
Michelle Zulu has enjoyed the support of the Book Bus for three years.