Milele has recently been working closely with Regent High School in Camden, London. We wanted to say a very big thank-you to them for taking part in Milele's 'Bring a Book' project by donating their old and unwanted books, which have now been given out to two schools in Kenya.

Royal Academy and New Life School in Mtwapa, Kenya have both benefited from the books from Regent High School in London. The children were very excited to receive them and the teachers were thrilled. One of the teachers receiving books through the Bring a Book project said:

"Thank-you so much for these books—the children love them. They enjoy reading them so much, the only problem is getting the books back at the end of the reading hour!"

Royal Academy is a small local school based in a shanty town, Mtwapa, on the east coast of Kenya. The school works on providing low cost education to children in the area who cannot afford school fees. The director, Mr Bosco, said how pleased he was to be able to read with the children; the books will make a huge difference to their work. New Life School are also benefiting from the books from Regent High (Camden, London). New Life school is also a small school, providing basic education to children in the area who cannot afford school fees. The director, Madam Esther, set the school up because she had no way of educating her own children. This is a common problem and now the school is growing, with more than 50 families asking for their children to attend.

Without basic resources, both these schools are struggling to provide a good level of education for their students. With these new books, the schools hope to dramatically improve literacy, reading, writing and spelling skills.

Follow up work:

Royal Academy has already hosted a Milele volunteer, Agnes, for a few months. She worked with the school to help them arrange the books and use them in small groups with the children. The children very much enjoyed the reading groups and got involved and engaged in learning through books.

After our trip in January we hope to bring you more feedback on the Bring A Book project - keep your eyes peeled on the site for more information.

Once again, thanks so much to Regent High and all our schools on the Bring a Book project, your donations are making a huge difference already.

For more information on our other work with Regent high school and to see photos of some of their home-made dolls being distributed, look at our other news articles.

Amy