Janet Lambrou on why she volunteers with ABCA

I simply love books. A very happy memory from my childhood is going to the local library with my mother and choosing books to read for the following weeks. I have continued to enjoy reading throughout my life and encouraged my children to do the same. When I was living in London in the 2000's I cherished the fortnightly visits I made with work colleagues to read with poorer school children in the East End, encouraging them and working with them to improve their reading skills.

Access to books and reading is taken for granted in Australia. Our children are privileged and lucky. We discard used books so easily. So when I met Elise Margow and had the opportunity to be involved in a project to send thousands of used books to children in Africa who were not so lucky, I jumped at it. I have enjoyed each and every packing session over the years, and was delighted to be involved recently in introducing the Harry Cohney Charitable Foundation to ABCA, resulting in increased shipments of books to Kenya.

I am quite practical and love streamlining and improving processes, so I have also enjoyed working with a team to smoothly sort, stamp and pack books to maximum capacity!! And there is simply no better reward than to see the joy on the children’s faces when they open those tightly packed boxes and select their books to read.

Everyone knows that reading is the gateway to all knowledge. To be a very small part of opening that gateway for children in Africa is a privilege. Thank you ABCA for bringing the joy of it to my life.

Posted June 2023

Written by Janet Lambrou