200 children from The Anne Frank Public Primary School in Utrecht formed a long ribbon during the roll-out of a poem half a kilometer long. The starting shot was given by children's book author Daniëlle Schothorst, known for, among other things, her most recent playwright book Superzwerver. With this playful action, the collaboration of Kinderzwerfboek and DHL Parcel starts. Over the next 3 years, they will work together to make reading kilometres possible for all children in the Netherlands. Children can get a book for free at all Children's Wandering Book Stations in the Netherlands. In order to provide these 3,000 Stations with enough children's books, there is a collection campaign for everyone: from 16-21 September, read children's books can be returned packaged at DHL ServicePoints. DHL will help the foundation with the logistics.
Jan Wezendonk, director and director of the National Children's Aid Fund: "We are very pleased with the cooperation with DHL. The logistical knowledge and strength of DHL helps us enormously to get books to the places where the books are most needed. There are still children who have few books at home and therefore cannot make reading kilometers. Reading is important for the development of a child and offers tools to do something against possible poverty."
Martijn Kleij, Vice President Marketing & Retail: "We are pleased to be able to use our service points and logistical expertise to help children make reading kilometres. This gives our employees the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children in this way as well. This partnership aligns well with other initiatives we are doing for children and the global partnership with SOS Children's Villages that are expressions of DHL's GoTeach program."
Martijn Staats, director of Public Primary School Anne Frank in Utrecht: "Reading is so important because it greatly increases children's language skills. In addition, I would like children to learn to enjoy reading in order to get to know an infinite wealth of stories."
Reading for miles
Children who read for fifteen minutes a day expand their vocabulary faster and perform better at school. Unfortunately, more than 250,000 children of primary school age do not have enough reading books at home, so there is a chance that they will leave primary education with a language delay. For all children and in particular for children in focus areas, there are Children's Wandering Book Stations in 3,000 places in the country. There, children can choose a nice reading book and pass it on to other children. The Stations are housed in schools, community centers, petting zoos and at people's homes and can be found via www.kinderzwerfboek.nl
A Station is visited by an average of 10 to 15 children every week. This means that 30,000 to 45,000 children a week visit a station. In a Station there are an average of 25 to 30 books which adds up to more than 90,000 stray books that are waiting to be read. Every year, more than 100,000 new children's books are sent out of wanderings. Since the start of the program, more than 2 million children's books have been provided. These stray books are donated by publishers and collected through organizations and individuals.
The Netherlands in action
Kinderzwerfboek and DHL are joining forces to get as many children's books from private individuals as possible in the Children's Wandering Book Stations. Everyone in the Netherlands can hand in their read children's books packaged at a DHL ServicePoint in the action week of 16-21 September. With almost 3,000 DHL points, there is always one nearby. With this action, Kinderzwerfboek and DHL hope to collect more than 15,000 reading kilometres (50,000 books). All books are brought to the central DHL distribution center in Utrecht where DHL volunteers select the books, provide them with a stray sticker and make beautiful packages from them. These packages will be sent to KinderzwerfboekStations in the Netherlands before the Children's Book Week in October. This way all children can pick out a nice book at the Station in their neighborhood.