South Shields Community School (SSCS) Books Donation, September 2011

SSCS students prepare for the move

The Wish Wednesday Pilgrimage Group, helped the school get prepare for its move to the new site on Nevinson Avenue. They collected unwanted text books from each faculty area, and delivered 20 large boxes of books to the BAFA appeal. Dr. Elewechi Okike, principal lecturer at the University of Sunderland took delivery of the books and was delighted with the contribution of the students.

BY THE BOOK ... Cassidy Moyse, Abbie Bonar, Danielle Hall, Laura Gallagher and Heather Dickson with a donation to Book Aid to Africa.

CHILDREN in Africa are on a learning curve, thanks to kind-hearted youngsters in the borough. Pupils from South Shields Community School moved into their new building in September 2011. And ahead of the move into their £21m facility, in Nevinson Avenue, South Shields, students gathered 15 boxes full of unwanted textbooks to donate them to the charity.

A group of 10 students, aged 14 to 16, handed them over to Book Aid for Africa in Hylton Riverside, Sunderland. Teacher Janet Burdon, who was part of the team which helped design the new school, contacted the charity to ask if its workers would like to take the books off their hands. She said: "Hopefully, this is part of a long friendship with Book Aid for Africa in terms of us going round the schoolrooms and finding out what else is not needed in the coming months."

The selection of English reading, geography, history, science and maths textbooks have found their way to deprived parts of Africa. Book Aid for Africa collects books from around the UK and ships them. University of Sunderland principal lecturer Dr Elewechi Okike, who founded the project, said: "On behalf of the Board of Trustees of Book Aid for Africa, I would like to thank staff and pupils of South Shields Community School for their kindness in donating their unwanted books to our Charity. The books will make a world of difference to children in deprived schools in Africa. In particular, we appreciate their kind gesture in making time to drop the books at our warehouse. We hope they will continue to support our work in future. We will be more than happy to take on pupils from the School as volunteers during their week of placement."

Dr Okike has also appealed for more people to get involved with sending books to African schools. She said, "It costs money to ship books to Africa, so we would encourage people to make donations or become volunteers."

Source: The Shields Gazzete