Letter to editor – the charity book club helping fund emergency shelter for people displaced by conflict and disaster

Dear Editor,  

Every month members of ShelterBox Book Club are helping to fund emergency shelter for people displaced by conflict and disaster all over the world. People who have often had to leave behind their homes, belongings, livelihoods, and sometimes even loved ones. It’s one of the last charity subscription book clubs left in the UK and as we celebrate our five-year anniversary our dedicated bookworms have read more than 90,000 books. In doing so, they’ve raised more than £1.25m for ShelterBox. The international disaster relief charity is currently supporting people displaced in Morocco, Türkiye and Syria by earthquakes, flooding in Libya, drought in east Africa, as well as conflict in places like Ukraine, Yemen, and Burkina Faso, with different combinations of emergency shelter, and basic items like water filters, mosquito nets, and blankets.  

Every six weeks, our book club members are invited on a journey. They vote for the next compelling read from a shortlist of three specially selected titles, reflecting the incredible people and places we work. We’ve read stories by women from Afghanistan with ‘My Pen is the Wing of a Bird’, a young boy’s remarkable experiences in the Malawian story ‘The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind’ by William Kamkwamba, and true stories of upheaval in ‘We Are Displaced’ by Malala Yousafzai. 

To find out more about ShelterBox Book Club, visit shelterbox.org/book-club/. New members can join for a suggested donation of £10 a month, or memberships can be gifted in subscriptions of six- or 12-month packages.      

Catherine Thornhill 

Head Bookworm 

ShelterBox Book Club