Groups of diaspora volunteers in Europe and North America are collecting donated books and shipping them to schools in Somalia, where many classrooms have few reading materials beyond basic textbooks.

The volunteers run collection drives at mosques, community centres and local schools, sorting the books by age group and subject before packing them into boxes. They focus on children's stories, simple science books, dictionaries and Somali-language titles.

New libraries in old classrooms

Receiving schools have turned spare classrooms and corners of staff rooms into small libraries, with shelves built by parents and local carpenters. "When the boxes were opened, the children gathered around as if it were a celebration," said a head teacher at a primary school that received one of the shipments.

Teachers said they now hold weekly reading sessions and allow pupils to borrow books overnight, encouraging families to read together at home. Some schools have started reading competitions to keep students motivated.

Volunteers check every box before it is sent to make sure the books are in good condition and suitable for the age group. They also include notes from the children who donated them, which pupils in Somalia have started answering with letters and drawings.

The volunteers say shipping costs are their biggest challenge and they are looking for businesses willing to sponsor containers. They are also working with Somali writers to print more local-language children's books, which they say are in particularly high demand.

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