StorHub Continues Supporting Books Beyond Borders As They Open A Brick-And-Mortar Bookstore | Channel 8

Our marketing manager, Janice Soon, was recently interviewed by MediaCorp Channel 8 for their Morning Express segment to share on how StorHub has been supporting our CSR partner, Books Beyond Borders, a social enterprise that shares the same value of contributing to our community. Founded by Randall Chong, Books Beyond Borders uses 100% of its donations and profits made from the sale of gently used books to help build schools in rural areas of Nepal so that underprivileged children there can have the opportunity to receive formal education.

Last July, Randall decided to open a cosy 400 square-foot brick-and-mortar bookstore in Bishan which can accommodate between 8000 and 9000 books. It is open to the public on Fridays and over the weekends, attracting about 30 to 40 booklovers to visit them each time. They also receive more than 1000 books on a monthly basis.

Back when Randall first started the social business, second-hand books were donated by only his friends and family members. However, as time passed, Books Beyond Borders’ supporters grew in number through word-of-mouth. On top of that, many bookworms took the time to clean up their homes during the pandemic, got rid of books that they have read and had plenty of spare time to do some reading, which in turn helped with Randall’s business. Within a period of two and a half years, Books Beyond Borders managed to raise about $35,000 that went towards the cost of renovating schools in Nepal. As COVID-19 restrictions eased, they also started to set up pop-up stores at 2 to 3 malls every month to sell these gently used books that are donated to them.

As part of their day-to-day operations, Randall and his team of part-timers and volunteers go to different places to collect donated books, check the conditions of those books, select and categorise them, and subsequently put a price tag on each book, all while handling online transactions. Since Books Beyond Borders receives a monthly donation of more than 1000 books, having the designated storage space at StorHub to sort through the books for quality control further helps the business to streamline their operations so that more beneficiaries in Nepal can benefit from reading and gaining a wealth of knowledge.