Photos obtained from Book Aid International’s Website

Book Aid International has appointed bestselling Nigerian author Abi Daré as its first-ever Author Ambassador!

This newly created role is designed to raise awareness of global book access and advocate for reading as a fundamental right. Daré, author of The Girl with the Louding Voice and climate fiction prize-winner And So I Roar, recently visited Book Aid’s newly opened Swindon warehouse, where she packed copies of her own novels into boxes bound for Nigeria. Standing among shelves piled with donated volumes, Daré described the experience as “seemingly ordinary” yet “capable of transforming lives,” imagining “the light in readers’ eyes once these stories of courage reach them.”

For Daré, the ambassadorship represents alignment between her literary work and institutional mission. Both her novels follow Adunni, a fourteen-year-old girl pursuing education with unwavering determination despite systemic obstacles. “While Adunni’s journey reflects some of the specific challenges faced by the girl child, her fight for a Louding Voice represents a universal desire for knowledge and the resilience required to achieve a dream,” Daré explained. That fight mirrors Book Aid International’s work providing books to libraries, schools, refugee camps, prisons, and hospitals across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond, over one million brand-new books annually to partners in 26 countries. Dr. Alice Prochaska, chair of trustees, noted how the messages in Daré’s books about education’s value align closely with the charity’s mission.

Growing up in Lagos, Daré understood books as portals beyond immediate circumstances. “Reading provided my window to the world. A story could transport me effortlessly from my bedroom into a vast universe. A textbook could inform and expand my mind, regardless of its distance from a classroom,” she reflected. This personal history informs her advocacy work, including founding The Louding Voice Education and Empowerment Foundation in 2023 to support girls facing limited educational access and systemic poverty. “Working with the foundation has shown me how a single book can help a reader overcome the structural challenges that seek to keep them small,” Daré noted, connecting her grassroots work with Book Aid’s institutional scale.

Daré’s appointment comes as Book Aid International, founded in 1954 and patronized by Queen Camilla since 2022, continues operating entirely on voluntary donations after government funding ceased in 2007. The charity provides books to public and community libraries as well as specialized libraries in prisons, refugee camps, hospitals, schools, and universities, working in partnership to develop library services through support projects and training programmes. In 2019, an estimated 19 million people read books provided by Book Aid International. Daré described books as “the ultimate equaliser,” asking readers to “imagine a world where everyone has the opportunity to read, where expertise is not concentrated in one corner of the globe but shared wherever there is a curious mind.”

As Author Ambassador, Daré will spend 2026 raising awareness of global book access inequality while encouraging wider support for the charity’s work. She framed the role through words from And So I Roar: “Books have a special gift of not ever dying. The words in a book have wings that can travel far, reach minds and hearts of people in countries and cities in the world.” Her visibility as a bestselling author whose work remains deeply rooted in Nigerian contexts while reaching international audiences makes her particularly positioned to advocate for a charity whose mission depends on recognizing that book access remains profoundly unequal globally.

Congratulations, Daré!