Making Books Accessible To All Children
We have all seen the disturbing images of poverty and suffering in developing countries, on TV, in the newspapers or on the Internet. As much as one would like to help, what can really, effectively be done? Many international charities and NGO’s are doing an excellent job fighting the ongoing problems of these countries. They provide money, food, clothing and medicine, all of which are very much needed. However, the problems are massive.
Read to Grow has a slightly different approach. We believe that teaching people from developing countries to support and educate themselves is extremely important.
Through education, these countries can grow to become stronger, more self-sufficient and no longer dependent on help from others. Read to Grow contributes to this philosophy by supporting small-scale projects with high-quality English and French books.
There are so many adults and children who go through life without ever having read a book. In developing countries, books are scarce and very expensive. Without books, the door to knowledge and progress remains closed. Many people remain in a vicious circle of poverty and illiteracy, instead of developing their talents and bringing change to their community through knowledge and experience.
How We Work | It is actually quite simple.

Collection
We collect used books in good quality, or gifts of new books in English and French for all ages. We receive the books by approaching schools in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and other European countries.

World Book Day
Through the World Books Day Action we encourage the students of these schools to donate a book to another student in a developing country. In this way we try to make students in the west aware of the fact that not everyone has access to books.

Delivering Books
The collected books will be transported to the storage of Read to Grow in The Netherlands. The books are then selected on age and quality and sorted in different categories by volunteers. After the sorting process we deliver the books to small-scale European based partner organizations.

Donation
When we donate books to our partner organizations, they have to provide the shipment of books from Europe to their projects in developing countries. We do this because these organizations often already send containers with help materials to their projects on a regular basis. Also these partner organizations have to provide a reading room, reading tables, chairs and bookshelves themselves.

Receiving Books
When the books have arrived, the partner organization is required to send a letter and photographs and / or film as evidence that the books have been received and are being used at the project.

Where do we stand?
From 2002 up to 2025 we have provided books to 1612 reading projects in 79 countries with an average of 977 books per project. In total 1.575.355 books.
Our Goals
Where are we heading?
We want to respond to the increasing demand for books and this asks for a strong organisation to guarantee continuity and growth. The Read to Grow foundation aims to be an excellent example in development cooperation. Cooperation and quality are important core values.
Before 2027 we want have brought 2,000,000 books to 2000 projects in 100 countries
We manage to collect and distribute large quantities of books for a very small amount of money. For example a lot of books are collected at schools in the Netherlands and in foreign countries making use of UNESCO World Book Day.
Our budget for 2025 is 80 eurocent per send book and this will increase to 90 eurocent per send book in 2027
We want to achieve this by involving generous major donors who think reading is important and want to grant this also to an unknown other. But also small donors can make a difference. We are happy with each and every donor. Donors are welcome for a presentation and tour at our logistic centre (Gemertse weg 12A in Boekel, The Netherlands). Of course by appointment only. Please contact Robert Romme (tel. 0031 492 34721 or chairman@readtogrow.eu).
Frequently Asked Questions
We support UNESCO’s adage: “We have to make sure that books are accessible to everybody everywhere”. So in general, we send books to every place they are needed, for example: schools, orphanages, youth prisons, libraries and hospitals.
We accept English, French, Spanish and Portuguese books.
Initially we have been sending English and French books.
But since 2022 we have been collecting Spanish and Portuguese books too.
- Currently, it costs 70 Eurocents to ship one book to a developing country. This price would be much higher if we were to send new books, which would have to be purchased.
- Because most books are collected by children, our goal works both ways. We support projects which need books, but we also help increase the awareness in children here, that there are people in the world who have very little or no access to books.
- Every year, many books are thrown away or stay untouched in a bookshelf. By collecting these books, we do our part in recycling and add to a better environment.
- All books collected are sorted according to a strict procedure. This way, the books we send to projects are of excellent or almost new condition, and therefore have almost the same quality as a new book.
Political, violent and sexually oriented books are also removed. Fortunately, we do not receive these kinds of books too often.
Naturally, we do not just throw them out. These books are donated to a company, which processes them into recycled paper. And that is good for our environment.
"We must ensure that books are accessible for everybody and everywhere"
