Queen Consort Camilla Sends Book Donations to Rwandan Library She Visited Last Year

In the middle of a busy week, Queen Consort Camilla found some time to send a personal message to a place she visited last year. On a visit to Book Aid International’s central warehouse in London, she signed a special note to send, along with donated books, to the Kigali Public Library, which she toured during her trip to Rwanda with King Charles III for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting last June. 

“This comes with my warmest wishes to everyone at Kigali Public Library, whom I so enjoyed meeting last year!” read the note on Clarence House stationery. She added an extra handwritten note that read “with all my best wishes,” and signed the page with her new royal signature, Camilla R. 

Book Aid International sends more than one million titles to refugee camps, schools, hospitals, and libraries around the world, and during her visit, Camilla got to help volunteers pack books for a shipment, including labeling one with a self-inking stamp. She also spoke to Paul Boateng, a member of the House of Lords. According to a palace statement, Lord Boateng benefitted from the charity’s books as a child in Ghana and now serves as its vice-patron.

Later, she traveled to Coram Beanstalk, a charity that provides one-on-one reading tutoring, to celebrate their 50th anniversary. She listened to a series of readings, and then cut into a cake to celebrate the student winners of a national writing competition for children in foster care. In 2018, the late queen was on hand to open the organization’s Queen Elizabeth II Centre, funded in part by the Queen’s Trust, where Camilla visited Thursday.

Though Camilla visited the charities as a part of her work promoting literacy in the UK, she has been equally busy with other duties. On Tuesday she posed for a photo with the Grenadier Guards, one month after becoming the famed battalion’s new colonel. On Wednesday night she was joined by King Charles III, Prince Edward, and Princess Anne at a Buckingham Palace reception to celebrate the contributions East and Southeast Asians have made to the arts, healthcare, media, fashion, and business in Britain. 

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