Street Child has been announced as The London Book Fair’s (LBF) Charity of the Year 2023.
One of the world’s fastest-growing international children’s charities, Street Child work with an expanding network of local organisations and focus on the power and purpose of inspirational local level action. They believe every child deserves to be safe, in school and learning, even and especially in low-resource environments and emergencies.
Since their first partnership in Sierra Leone in 2008, they now work across over 21 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and now Europe, supporting Ukraine, providing 902,999 children with direct access to education and mental health provisions. They have also supported 124,848 adults through a range of programmes to make families self-sufficient and communities sustainable.
Gareth Rapley, Director of The London Book Fair, said: “Street Child are an incredible charity, acting across education, economic empowerment, and protection programming. They play a crucial role in international aid: they actively seek out situations where there are gaps between assistance and need, intervening where they are needed the most – including, most recently, in Ukraine. Street Child have proven instrumental in helping children who are facing challenges and have limited to no access to schooling, ensuring safety as well as educational provisions. Huge congratulations to Street Child, and we look forward to celebrating the charity’s phenomenal work at LBF in April 2023.”
Donna Beetham, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Street Child, said: “We are delighted to be London Book Fair’s chosen charity this year, especially as we are celebrating our 15th Anniversary and the achievement of reaching over 900,000 children through life-changing access to education in the world’s toughest places. We look forward to being part of The London Book Fair community”.
As Charity of the Year 2023, Street Child will be given an exhibition space and seminar session at LBF in April, in addition to receiving extensive marketing support including promotion across social channels, before and during the event. The charity will also benefit from a year-long promotion on LBF’s website, and online opportunities for fundraising and awareness.
In 2022, The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) was named LBF Charity of the Year. Other recent Charity of the Year recipients include Royal Voluntary Service in 2020-21, BAFTA Kids charity Place2Be in 2019, the Kittiwake Trust in 2018, and Worldreader in 2017.
The London Book Fair (LBF) is the largest spring book trade and publishing event in the world, and will take place at Olympia London, 18-20 April 2023. Registration is now open.
