Click here to visit the archived 2002 Books Without Borders website.

Click here to visit the archived 2001 Books Without Borders website.

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Fiona Lovatt Davis
Educator

"My immediate purpose is to mobilise the children of New Zealand to make the gift of a book from their own homes, from their own hands ..."

Hannah Palmer
Media Liaison
hannahpalmer@lycos.com

"If you can help by donating books or services to bring this dream to fruition, please email me."

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Delivering the Biggest Gift of All...

Fiona Lovatt Davis returned from a trip to Nigeria profoundly moved at the plight of the children she encountered there in 2001, and she is determined to make a difference.

It is the beginning of an ongoing quest by Lovatt Davis to promote literacy in Nigeria, one of the poorest communities in the world.

The project, in association with international humanitarian organization The Global Bridge will see a container load of books donated by New Zealand school children annually shipped to Nigeria.

The first container remains there as a Literacy Resource Centre. Lovatt Davis hopes to return to Nigeria to assist with the distribution of the books, joining forces with the Reading Association of Nigeria to deliver training and literacy workshops to teachers.

The project aims to establish lasting links between New Zealand school children and their Nigerian counterparts, by asking the recipients of the books to offer a token gift (such as a stone, marble or bead) to the New Zealand donors.

It is hoped that the New Zealanders will remain interested in the progress of their new friends and continue to help out in years to come. The Books Without Borders campaign, to be documented in print, photos, film and video, and its own website, also hopes to quash the common belief that aid sent to impoverished countries always ends up in the wrong hands.

"Nigeria has untold and beautiful stories that are presently lost behind a wall of poverty and prejudice."

"This campaign," says Lovatt Davis, "aims to provide a vehicle to help restore faith in the merits of giving, and the documentation of this project will prove that we can make a difference and that we should not just turn our backs. " Schools nationwide took part in the first campaign during December 2001.

Any enquiries, or requests for more information and photos can be directed to hannahpalmer@lycos.com

School Children Rise To The Challenge

Fiona Lovatt-Davis never dared hope that her dream of achieving literacy among underprivileged school children in Nigeria would ever reach fruition - but with the help of New Zealand school children, the first step towards that dream is almost complete.

A nationwide challenge was issued to New Zealand school children to collect enough books in one week to fill a giant forty foot container to be shipped to Nigeria at Christmas.

The challenge, entitled "Books Without Borders," aims to have every New Zealand school child contribute a favourite book, with the intention of getting the books to Auckland and filling a container by December 24th annually.

Many public libraries and Save the Children shops throughout New Zealand acted as collection points for schools whose children have donated books. Many schools ran competitions between their classes to see which one could collect the most books - and the general public also took up the challenge in 2001.

Fiona, a former school principal, who came up with the idea after a trip to Nigeria to attend the 2nd Pan African Reading Conference, hopes to return to Nigeria to gain feedback from the distributors: the Reading Association of Nigeria and to meet with many of the children who received a book from this first shipment.

She is overwhelmed at the strong response from New Zealanders and she is still determined to make sure that news of the campaign reaches every corner of the country with or without the support of mainstream media who have little interest in a project that reveals the caring and compassionate strata at work in the country.