KIDS URGED TO SUPPORT PENS FOR AFRICA CAMPAIGN

Last year children in the UK collected an astonishing three tons of recycled stationery to send to pupils in some of the poorest regions in the world.

The huge stockpile was collected as part of a major nationwide campaign, launched by Staples, to encourage children to donate their old pens and pencil cases to children in Africa, rather than throw them away.

Now back for a second year, youngsters are being urged to support the initiative again by taking their old but good-quality stationery into their local Staples store.

The initiative builds on the activity of UK charity READ International, which redistributes old text books to African countries that follow the same syllabus as the UK.

READ Director Rob Wilson, who has just won an Enterprising Young Brit 2010 Award for his work with the charity, said: “Last year was a great success and really made a difference to pupils who want to study, but struggle to get even the basic stationery. We’re hoping to do even better this time round and would urge youngsters across the country to support our efforts.”

Staples’ stores will all have a special collection point for children to recycle their old equipment.

Every year, thousands of good-quality pens and pencil cases are stuffed into cupboards or just dumped, as children insist on going back to school with brand new equipment - which is what prompted Staples to join forces with the charity READ International.

Staples Head of Marketing Yetunde Ige said: “It’s a ritual for children to demand new stationery when they go back to school, particularly after the summer holidays - and that can be frustrating for parents.

“The Staples Back to School Swapsies means that children can learn what it means to be a global citizen - and parents can avoid the waste.”

Schoolchildren in Tanzania and Uganda follow a syllabus almost identical to the UK, but as one of the poorest regions in the world, teachers often lack the resources needed to teach.

Some useful stats:

• Since 2005 READ has sent books, sports equipment and stationery to 520 schools in Tanzania
• READ saves 15 tons of books from being sent to UK landfill sites every time they run a project. They are planning to run 22 this year.
• In 2009, READ took its global citizenship message out to 17,000 UK school children
• The charity uses university student volunteers to do much of its work and in 2009, 440 students got involved.

Background on Staples: Staples, the world’s largest office products company, is committed to making it easy for customers to buy a wide range of office products, including supplies, technology, furniture, and business services. With 2008 sales of $23 billion and 91,000 associates worldwide, Staples serves businesses of all sizes and consumers in 27 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. In July 2008, Staples acquired Corporate Express, one of the world’s leading suppliers of office products to businesses and institutions. Staples invented the office superstore concept in 1986 and is headquartered outside Boston. More information about Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS) is available at www.staples.com.

Background on READ: READ International was set up by Rob Wilson whilst he was studying politics at the University of Nottingham. He graduated in 2006 and chose to take READ International on as a full time commitment to oversee its successful expansion beyond Nottingham to other UK universities. Since founding READ he has won not only the Enterprising Young Brits Award 2010, but also a £20,000 Unltd Level 2 award, he was a finalist in the Daily Mail Enterprising Young Brits Awards 2006, winner of the Social Enterprise Day 2006 award, and finalist in the New Statesman Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2008. www.readinternational.org.uk