AN appeal for books and volunteers was this week issued by a West Devon-based charity working with desperately poor children in Africa, Asia and South America. The Book Bus is a bit like a mobile library service — with a very big difference. The specially decorated buses, featuring drawings by children's illustrator and charity trustee Quentin Blake, visit schools and orphanages in Zambia, Malawi and Ecuador, promoting reading and story-telling. Robin Bailey of Tavistock spent three weeks in Zambia this summer as a Book Bus volunteer. With a background in engineering and sales, and no children of his own, it might not have been an obvious volunteering opportunity to embark upon — but it proved a completely unforgettable experience. 'This year has been my 60th on planet earth and I wanted to celebrate by doing something I would really remember, and I felt it was such a good, worthwhile thing to do,' said Robin. 'My time there was totally self-funded but it was worth every penny — it was an incredible time.' He and his fellow volunteers lived in tents for the duration of their time in Livingstone, Zambia, travelling to different schools each day for a morning working with the children. The area is close to the Victoria Falls and the Chobe National Park. Robin said: 'These children are so under-privileged, they really have nothing. They walk to school, sometimes for at least an hour, along dirt tracks, and when they get there, the school could literally just be a building with hardly anything in it. 'Some schools had blackboards, but some were just empty and we would sit on rush mats on the floor.' During the Book Bus visit, the volunteers read to the children, sing songs, and do drawing exercises. The books are in English, which can be a challenge with the youngest children — this is where drawing can come in particularly handy. Robin said: 'Some of them were tiny little tackers of four or five, some were as old as 15 or 16. The age groups were often mixed up, not like classes in this country. 'And many kids can't even go to school because they have family commitments, they have to look after brothers and sisters because their parents are working. 'AIDS is also rife out there, so many children are orphaned.' Robin said despite the school teachers being very pro-active and welcoming to the Book Bus volunteers, teaching methods were old-fashioned and often involved a lot of copying from blackboards. But even though the books they were reading to the children were in English, the acting out of the stories and the singing created some welcome stimulation in the classroom. Robin said: 'The first day I was in school I was there for about 90 minutes — I'm not a teacher and after 90 minutes' concentration, I was totally drained. It took everything out of me, but then I started to get a real buzz out of it. 'You get to the school in this big truck, you drop down the steps, we'd get all the books and stuff out and the kids are running up to you, trying to catch hold of your hand — I kept feeling I just didn't have enough hands! 'Because the World Cup was coming up at the time, I got them all chanting "Zambia, Zambia!" and then I got them singing the Music Man and they were absolutely loving it. 'It just provided a bit of excitement and a bit of different stimulation. I'm not going to say it helped them with their English, but it gave them a bit extra in their school life! Robin said despite the evident poverty, the children were willing and eager to learn — and never stopped smiling. 'They had so much enthusiasm, there was no dissent. Whatever you said they would copy you — at one point I had about 60 kids doing the conga around the school! For the duration of his stay, Robin lived at 'Grubby's Grotto' — the grounds of the old governor's house in Livingstone, dating from the time that Zambia was Northern Rhodesia. The house is owned by a New Zealander called Grubby, and the volunteers camp in tents in his garden. Their days consisted of working in various schools around Livingstone in the mornings, before returning to the camp for lunch. Afternoons were free and the volunteers prepared a meal and ate together during the evenings. 'I suppose you could call it a simple life — we were probably in bed by 10pm at night,' said Robin, who is now keen to help the Book Bus charity by raising awareness of its work. 'We are hoping to get stands at some of the literary festivals to show what we do. It's a case of trying to get people's attention, get them interested and get them on board. 'We are hoping to get people to sponsor a book, or even buy a set of books, but we also need volunteers, because it doesn't matter how many books you have, without the volunteers, the work can't happen. In some respects, volunteers are just as important as the books themselves. 'I know a lot of teachers have gone out there — I think they like the enthusiasm of the children and of course being teachers they have a real advantage over mere mortals like me.' There are now five Book Buses run by the charity, working hard to improve child literacy and inspiring youngsters to become confident readers for life. As a result of work by volunteers like Robin, school attendances have been rising and reading levels have improved greatly. The charity believes that reading is an essential life skill, crucial to the academic and social development of young people, and that through its work, educational standards can improve, along with children's prospects for the future. Sikayomya Manyando, headteacher at Twabuka Basic School in Zambia, said: 'The reading culture in the schools here was almost dead. 'From this year's Book Bus support, we have seen that the children are eager, firstly to speak in English and secondly to read. 'It is not only the school that benefits — even the community now has that desire to read; the children take the materials from school to home and the parents are now also asking for the books from us. 'The Book Bus has really lifted our reading levels.' For as little as £5, a child can be provided with a year's worth of reading from the Book Bus. Volunteers can spend from two weeks to four months working for the charity. For more information, go to http://www.thebookbus.org">www.thebookbus.org or email [email protected]">[email protected] You can also pick up a leaflet about the charity from VentureCo Worldwide in Paddon's Row, Tavistock.