Bookbike London, a free book sharing social enterprise service has achieved a historic milestone of 10,000 free books shared.
The initiative is run by Emdad Rahman, an Attendance and Welfare Advisor. at the London Enterprise Academy.
The project started off as a productive way for Emdad to combine a passion for cycling and reading.
The very first book was donated by his late father Lutfur Rahman, and a cycle was presented to him by his friend Rofik.
The project which operates in Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Newham, Redbridge and Barking and Dagenham was launched at the Barking Learning Centre by Zoinul Abidin, Head of Universal Services.
Emdad started to share free books with homeless hostels, care homes, schools, and the street homeless amongst others and as the Covid pandemic led to a global lockdown he adapted to start delivering food parcels and essentials as part of a special Covid outreach programme.
To support him on book runs Emdad also used Santander Cycles provided by his employer and as a result had one named after him.
This was presented to him by Transport for London during a special ceremony at Hyde Park during the Covid lockdown. As a thank you he was presented a one year Santander Cycles free membership to help him in his frontline role.
Collecting books from Russell Howard and featuring on his show propelled Bookbike London to a huge audience and donations of books multiplied overnight.
He has declined the offer to switch to electric bikes as he singles his daily commute as a great activity for his own wellbeing.
He said: “I do drive but for work. The cycle is an outlet and saves me a gym membership. I’ve met so many smashing people on the journey.”
On celebrating reaching the 10,000 book milestone Emdad said, “I would like to think of Bookbike as a small service based on the foundations of a solid and stable community which relies on itself first and foremost.
“We remain a humble project, grateful for the opportunity to serve, with terrific help from family, friends and complete strangers.”
Headteacher Mr Ashid Ali said, “Reading opens doors and broadens the mind. We are delighted to keep continuing to support this great project as it empowered the young and old in our community.
“Well done Emdad, well done Bookbike!”
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