The Aboriginal Literacy Foundation’s Books to the North program originally started as a one-off book program for remote schools in the Northern Territory. Since then, the program has expanded to more than 150 remote and regional schools in the Northern Territory, Northern Western Australia, and Northern Queensland. This program was a pioneer and recognised a need for books at a time when programs were trending towards digital technologies. In remote communities, there are far greater connectivity and power issues that often make digital programs unsustainable. For example, a community maybe serviced by one main generator and this is usually reserved for powering the service station, health facility or government department.

We have a wonderful tradition of supplying books to Northern Australia with our Healthy Living Series which was founded more than 10 years ago. Approximately 90,000 volumes of this important social and health support have been sent to schools and families in remote Northern Australia.

More than 50 inner city schools in Melbourne and Sydney have supported this program by holding book drives and fundraisers. We are so encouraged that so many young people have recognised the importance of books.

The books that the ALF receives are sorted at our warehouse into age groups, making them useful for particular school levels from pre-school to high school, and can be asked for specifically.

Throughout the course of the program, we have used a combination of approaches to distribute books. We have made several tours of Australia’s North and we also use Australia Post and courier firms. Occasionally, supporters also volunteer to distribute books, as was the case with the Archibald family, who distributed copies of the Healthy Living Series to remote and regional schools during a holiday around Australia.

Parents, teachers, carers, community groups and government organisations that have Indigenous children in their care can partake in the Books to the North program. The program is a free service; there is no cost involved for ordering or postage of the books.

We could not possible have achieved this wonderful outcome of supplying 100,000 books to remote schools without your help.

Thank you to all who have supported this program.