As part of a country-wide literacy festival led by EduSpots involving their network of libraries in a series of locally-led literacy events, the EduSpots team are currently delivering 28,500 books across 40 communities in some 15 regions.

EduSpots is a UK and Ghanaian registered NGO aiming to connect, train and equip local leaders to drive community-led change through education.

Since 2015, the team has engaged with over 500 volunteers, building, renovating or supporting 42 community-led libraries across Ghana and Kenya.

Volunteers are offered training in leadership, literacy and STEM, and are engaged in annual conferences.

In May this year, students from the Sevenoaks School in the UK worked with 12 local schools to collect, sort, stamp, pack and ship 22,000 new or fairly new books and sustainable educational resources for delivery in support of education in some rural communities in Ghana.

Book Aid International, who partnered with EduSpots, also supported with 3500 books. Again, EduSpots printed about 3000 story books and phonics books in Ghana.

Since 2015, EduSpots has delivered over 100,000 books to Ghanaian communities, including many local text books and African fiction books.

The team works with over 50 UK and Ghanaian schools with the aim of ensuring informed global knowledge through education.

Students have had the chance to connect through online courses on global development, social leadership, post-colonial perspectives and social entrepreneurship.

Speaking to JoyNews, the Resource Manager for EduSpots, Francis Yeboah, said “This pandemic period has been very challenging for everyone, particularly for pupils and teachers in under-resourced environments".

According to him, "The gap in educational provision has meant that some pupils continued their learning when others did not. Our book drives make it possible for students in 40 of our project sites to access resources in our community-led centres.”

Many of the centres funded by EduSpots are powered by solar, enabling learning to continue during periods of power outages.

These centres have often been the only source of educational support for students during the pandemic.

In 2018, EduSpots was recognized with the Tes International Award sponsored by the British Council for its work in global learning and international educating.

Cat Davison, a teacher at Sevenoaks School and Chair of EduSpots said: “As a cross-cultural education network, we ultimately believe that everyone has the ability to affect change. Together, we can enable communities to create the futures they want to see, whilst engaging students in diverse settings in intercultural learning, instilling the value of becoming active citizens.”

Also, as part of Sevenoaks School’s service programme, students co-created a series of books named Kwame’s Adventures, by working with other students and teachers in Ghana.

This has enabled them to learn about Ghanaian culture, whilst giving Ghanaian students the chance to create books that reflect them and their communities..

Following receipt of the first edition of ‘Kwame’s Adventures’, which is set in Tease, one student commented: “I love the book because it talks about my community and this is the first time I am reading a storybook that mentions my community’s name.”

In support of this cause, the EduSpots volunteer team are joining together to run, walk, swim, cycle and row 2000 miles as the book bus moves around Ghana.