Caterham Rotary Club were recently approached by locally based Caterham charity The Fundanami Trust with a request to help them in the collection of books to stock the school libraries in KwaZuluNatal South Africa. The Trust wanted mainly second hand books in good condition for children aged 3 to 16.

Caterham Rotary made contact with a number of local schools including St Peter & St Paul Chaldon, Whyteleafe, Caterham, de Stafford, Hamsey Green, Hillcroft, Oakhurst Grange, and also Whyteleafe Cubs and Brownies asking for their help. Support was also provided by Surrey County Council Libraries who the club approached at the start of the project. Books soon started to flood in and they were then boxed up by Rotarians and delivered to the Trust. Eventually a total of 22,000 books were accumulated from all over the UK including the books that they collected from the local schools and they are now in a container in transit by sea to Durban South Africa and scheduled to arrive on the 10th May.

Mike Miller Caterham Rotarian said: "This was a community based project for us and we were delighted with the response that we received from the schools. It enabled us to support The Fundanami Trust which was formed by Michael Wood (Ex Head Teacher) and his wife Eliz in order to provide literacy aid and development support for school libraries in South Africa. Both Mike and Eliz will be in Durban to supervise the unloading of the container of books and to arrange distribution to the local schools."

Further further information about the project contact Roger Easter at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. call 020 8763 8240.

To find out more about Caterham Rotary Club visit www.caterhamrotary.org.uk