One year on from its move to a new warehouse on the Cheney Manor Estate, UK charity Book Aid International is looking back on a busy first year in Swindon.
Book Aid International aims to provide over one million brand-new books every year to its partners around the world and their first year in Swindon was no exception. The charity began operations at the site in autumn 2025 and has since sent over 1 million brand-new books to countries including Uganda, Ethiopia and Ghana.
The move has also expanded what it can achieve going forward. The warehouse can hold more than 500,000 books, giving the charity room to store, select and dispatch more books than before. Those books are donated by UK publishers, and each one is carefully selected in line with requests from the charity’s partners.
The first shipment left Swindon in October 2025, containing 15,554 bound for Ukraine. The children’s books, leisure reading and English as a Second Language texts are helping PEN Ukraine restock libraries, including those in frontline and liberated communities. A Sunday Times fundraising appeal to Get Ukraine Reading will allow Book Aid International to send a further 35,000 books in 2027.
In March 2026, 22,000 books left Swindon for the Jamaica Library Service, supporting its work to rebuild a collection severely damaged by Hurricane Melissa. In October a shipment of 18,000 brand-new books was sent to restock libraries in Sudan, supporting students and researchers whose access to learning has been devastated by war.
In June, funders, friends and representatives from the local business community including Les Durrant and Tim Major from Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce, joined the charity to officially open the warehouse. Guests from longstanding publishing supporters including Hachette UK, Elsevier, Bloomsbury and Wiley were also in attendance. In 2025, 65 publishers donated books to support the charity’s work.
Book Aid International’s President, Nigel Newton CBE, said:
If you put the right book in front of the right reader anywhere in the world, something special happens. Book Aid International is the most effective way I know of getting books to the places where publishers cannot go but where books are genuinely needed and wanted
Bestselling author Abi Daré, the charity’s 2026 Author Ambassador, also addressed guests:
So I urge you to do what you can – whether donating your books, money or time – and I urge you to do it now. Readers worldwide simply cannot wait
The charity marked their one year anniversary by opening the doors of its distribution hub to local business leaders and professionals for a morning of networking and behind-the-scenes insight, in partnership with Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce. Guests saw how books are prepared, packed and shipped to the libraries, schools and universities that Book Aid International’s partners run in communities around the world, and heard how those partners use them to create opportunities to read, learn and study.
Behind every shipment of books is a dedicated team, including volunteers from the Swindon community who help to pack each book, and thousands of supporters who donate the funds the charity needs. Book Aid International receives no government grants or support and relies entirely on the generosity of publishers, financial donors and the public to do its work. It welcomes book donations of all kinds, particularly children’s books, and would be glad to hear from businesses across the region interested in supporting its work.
