Joseph, a new young volunteer, at Books Abroad provided us with this report of his volunteering at a bookstall on behalf of Books Abroad at Robert Gordon University:
The motivation behind this event was that “charity starts at home”. Therefore, we invited students at the university to take one book from the table that the faculty had donated in return for speaking with them about Books Abroad. The event quickly gained traction, and we successfully spread awareness about our charity, where some individuals even asked where they could donate books.
Over 100 students interacted with our stall, taking between 30 to 40% of the books. Interestingly, most students who visited the booth were international students, primarily Nigerian. It can also be noted that some of these Nigerian students were parents and were interested in the donated children’s books.
The event was an overall success since we were able to spread awareness about Books Abroad and save students money on expensive educational textbooks, where the average UK university student can be expected to spend £100 per semester on books. Moreover, the stall caught the attention of several staff members who returned home to collect old textbooks to donate – there was an apparent positive spillover effect.
This was an attempt to involve universities in Books Abroad and as it was a success more of these events will be held and, with the things learned from this event, the next one will be even better.
