Naija4life Launches the "Give a Book" Campaign

The Give a Book campaign aims to collect educational books which will be sent to Nigeria. The chief driver is Naija4life, the blogger behind A Pen and a Heart, a teacher and someone with a deep passion for education. Education has made a huge difference in his life and he says he will regard his life’s journey as unfulfilled if he fails to give back to society in any way he can. According to him, "we can be quite critical about the many wrongs in our society and most times rightly so. But I also believe we can take action by making small contributions that can only help improve our society. I’m a firm believer that whatever change we seek will only happen if we take action to accomplish them."

What is the purpose of this campaign?
Education remainss the key that will unlock Nigeria’s future. Good education can only be possible with access to books, something that many Nigerian children are denied.

How will this campaign work?
This campaign will involve awareness and invite people to donate old or used books they no longer need or are quite happy to give which are in fairly good condition. They can range from academic books, for primary and secondary school age, fiction, non-fiction etc.

Who can get involved?
This campaign is open to all. You can kindly donate a book or several books.

How can you get involved?
You can get involved by help spreading the word via your blogs, websites, through friends, family etc. This campaign is about the ordinary Nigerian children who have limited access to books and whom this campaign will benefit eventually. You can also get involved by choosing to become a co-facilitator of this campaign and be actively involved in its operations.

How long will this campaign last?
It will last for at least 6 months, up to the summer to enable the initial target of 1000 books.

Who will benefit from this campaign?
The plan is to partner with at least 3 schools especially in deprived areas in Nigeria in the first instance. The intention is to ensure that the books are donated for use in each school’s library for use by all students. Where a school library doesn’t exist then we can encourage them to set up one to enable students borrow or use these books for study. Do you know of any school that could benefit from this campaign? If so please get in touch and let me know how you can be of help in making the necessary contacts needed to get things started.

How will this campaign be funded?
This will be a 100% charitable campaign. They are not asking for money, only for publicity, and donations of old or used books for primary and secondary age or any book that will benefit young people. They'll also be soliciting for logistic support to send these books to Nigeria at the appropriate time. All books collected will be accounted for. At the end of the campaign, details of the schools where these books have been donated to will be made available. Regular updates will be made available on http://www.apenandaheart.blogspot.com/.

How can I send my book donations?
If you live in the UK or Ireland, please email me at: nnaija4life@yahoo.com or giveabooksaveourfuture@yahoo.com and you’ll be provided with the address where donations can be sent to. If you live in the US, Canada, or other parts of Europe, perhaps you may want to lead this campaign where you are which will be quite awesome if you can. Those in Nigeria, we would even rely on your massive support in recommending schools and mobilising where you are.

At the present, they've already collected about 100 ICT books which will be of immense benefit to Nigerian young people whose access to books is somewhat limited.

How can I get updates about the work of this campaign?
Naija4life will provide regular updates to show how much books have been donated and by who. Pseudo names can be used for those who don’t want their real identities revealed. He has contacted a media outlet in the UK (BenTv) and is currently in discussion to see how they may help get the word out to the Nigerian community and even others. He's also in the process of contacting VoxAfrica, another UK based media outlet for Diaspora people.

In whatever way you want to support, please feel free to send an email to nnaija4life@yahoo.com. Also please feel free to ask any questions you may have here as Naija4life will be coming over to answer them. He welcomes advice and constructive criticisms too.