A sunny autumn day saw School Aid volunteers out in force at the Hedgerley warehouse, packing every cranny of a 40ft container with books headed for Tanzania. For this shipment, we are working with two new partners in Tanzania, Voices of Africa and Kigamboni Community Centre, both identified by our representative in Tanzania, Josh Palfreman, and with two long-standing partners, Aseri Katanga and the Wabia Network.

The books will be distributed between at least 27 schools and libraries identified by our partners. Some are close to Dar es Salaam; others are many miles away in Mwanza, in the north-west of the country. Their students - almost 20,000 of them - come from some of the most disadvantaged sectors of the community, with nearly 2,000 identified as orphans or vulnerable children.

The first books arrived in the schools towards the end of the year, and we look forward to sharing news from the individual schools.