A man from Bushey who left the corporate world behind and set up his own charity with his wife is aiming to raise awareness of their work.
Luke Ellyard lived in Bushey Heath from 1986 to 1996 and attended Ashfield School. He now lives in Tanzania with his wife Rachel and two children, aged eight and nine.
Together, Luke and Rachel have set up a charity called The Bouncing Books Foundation, with the mission of supporting learning and transforming the lives of children in East Africa.
Luke said: “We realised after 23 years in the corporate world that we wanted to do something different with our lives and also something a bit more inspiring for our two young children. So after three years of admin setting up the charity logistics, we hit the ground in September 2022.
“We set up Bouncing Books with the aim to advance education and promote reading skills for children in government primary schools in Northern Tanzania. We have initially set ourselves the challenge of supporting 10 government primary schools, through our core pillars of building libraries, developing and providing educational materials, and providing children’s books and library bus services.
“Seeing children’s joy at opening a book and their eagerness to learn is great and at times working in a charity is a real ‘feel good’ job. You walk away from any engagement with the children knowing you have made a positive difference.”
The charity has made a huge positive impact in Tanzania by refurbishing a local school, Sura School.
Luke and Rachel are also in the process of creating a new library, which they hope to complete by November 2023, and are working with local school teachers to develop prototype flashcards for learning English.
To find out more about the charity and how you can help, please visit www.bouncingbooks.org
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