Container of books bound for Tanzania

Liz Robinson knows the power a book can have in a child’s life.

She travelled to Ghana in 2012 and 2013 where she worked in small villages delivering clothes and furniture, volunteering in orphanages and helping set up libraries in schools.

Now she is on another mission, this time to Tanzania.

Miss Robinson, together with the charity RATA Teacher Support, is collecting books and educational supplies to send to schools in the east African country.

A shipping container to carry the books has been supplied by Mainfreight but now the group needs books and donations to fill it.

‘‘They need great stories to fire their imaginations, to discover their world, to store and access knowledge and to enrich how they use language,’’ Miss Robinson says.

Travelling to Ghana and working with the local people made her realise how much education and life’s necessities are taken for granted in New Zealand.

‘‘For millions of people this is not a vacation but a way of life,’’ she says.

‘‘Poverty and a lack of quality health care, education and their justice system is normal.’’

RATA is a New Zealand organisation that sends qualified teachers to mentor and train teachers in African and Indian schools.

They spend five years in the schools working on projects including setting up libraries.

Its founder and trustee Glenys Bichan says their work aims to train teachers in the developing countries how to use the books they send over.

‘‘We are about making a difference to kids by giving them access to trained teachers who know how to use resources and books to good effect,’’ Ms Bichan says.

RATA is in need of five primary school teachers to travel to Ghana during the October school holidays to provide support.