Cambridge Uni Press Books Bound for Africa

This week Cambridge University Press announced that it will donate over 100,000 brand new books to the charity Book Trade International.

The charity will send the spanking new textbooks to a dozen African countries including Kenya, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. Building on an established link with Book Trade International, this will be CUP’s largest single donation to date.

The English based Book Trade International will dish out CUP’s books to promote classroom learning. Founded in 1954 by the “right-on” Right Hon. Lady Hermione Ranfurly, the charity has gifted over 30 million books to the developing world, delivering to communities in any way they can, from cars and motorbikes to donkeys and camels.

Director of Book Trade International, Clive Nettleton, explained that the charity’s aim is to support community development by raising the reach and standard of literacy. He thanked CUP for their generous donation, stating that it will help “literally thousands of children all over Africa”

A Cambridge college RAG rep today told The Tab her views on this big hearted donation from one of the oldest publishers in the world: “It’s so great that CUP has teamed up with a charity in this way. Here at Cambridge we all know the value of education and it’s something all people should be able to access. Even though RAG on campus is working on a smaller scale for these big issues, it’s really encouraging to see that big organizations care and are doing something about it”

The donation is part of a rising trend of big-time corporations giving to charitable causes especially in promotion of education and health and shows that CUP “advances learning, knowledge and research worldwide” as they say in their strap-line, and in this instance, for free.