Last year we sent 210,000 books for use in Ethiopian schools. These included Cobuild Dictionaries from Harper Collins, novels for young people from Random House, elementary reading books from OUP and Harper Collins, as well as GCSE and A level books in the sciences from Letts Educational and the Oxford University Press. The books we send are from lists offered by generous publishers, and are reviewed by our Academic Committee which consists of British and Ethiopian educationalists, academics and librarians. Once the books have been selected, we pick them up from the publisher's warehouse or distribution depot, at no cost to them. We then ship them by road and sea to Addis via Djibouti. Once they reach Addis, the Federal Government dispatches by lorry to the schools & libraries. Each book is stamped with "Gift from Book-Link. Not for Sale".

For elementary schools we usually ask for a minimum of 80 copies of the same title so each child in a class has their own copy to study (class sizes vary from 80-150 children). Each of the 550 secondary schools has a library which is central to the educational process. The school numbers are so large that the classes and library have to run at least 2 shifts per day. For these schools we will need a selection of textbooks which the Academic Committee will cross-reference with the Ethiopian curriculum. The librarians are currently being re-trained by the British Council to make sure these resources are properly exploited.