Correctbook wins “Promotion gift of the year” award for third time in a row

Twenty five year old Sam van Tol from Rotterdam in the Netherlands travels the world in his battle against illiteracy. With his company Correctbook he aims to give children in developing countries access to re-writable notebooks. These notebooks and accessories, are sold by Correctbook in Europe. Especially the customized books are being bought on a big scale by different companies. Part of the profit is used to introduce these same kind of notebooks to different African countries. To everyone’s surprise Correctbook won the award for “promotion gift of the year” for the third year in a row!

How Correctbook started.

When Sam was on holidays in South Africa he was confronted with the causes of illiteracy. In the schools he visited, the children hardly had access to a decent pen or a clean piece of paper. Back home he couldn’t forget about the gross lack of school material he had witnessed. Worldwide almost one billion people are unable to read or write. A quarter of these people are children who go to school every day without a pen and a piece of paper.

Sam developed a notebook that can be re-used endlessly. It works like a whiteboard, but has the shape and size of a notebook. He started up the social enterprise “Correctbook” in 2014 and since then more than one hundred thousand people have started using the Correctbook notebooks. They are sold to businesses as well as to individuals. Businesses can customize their books with their own logo or artwork on the books. In this way, they help Sam to reach the goal of his mission. And this proves to be successful.

Promotion gift of the year 2017, 2018 and 2019

“It is unbelievable. Winning a title like this once is special enough when your product is new in the market. The first year we won this award thanks to the jury. The two following years, it was the public who visited Correctbook during the annual PromZ conference in Amsterdam who voted for us. It is magnificent how much support an idea receives when your aim is to reach a higher goal than only the commercial gain,” says Sam.

Endless writing for everyone

The concept is very simple. Correctbook sells her products in different European countries and part of the turnover is used to provide developing countries in Africa with the same products. Sam’s goal is ambitious: he wants to give one million children in developing countries access to a Correctbook before the year 2023. As we speak, the score is at 21.150 children who have Correctbook’s writing material that they can use for four years.

You can buy the Correctbook notebooks online at www.correctbook.org. Also visit the website for customized Correctbooks for your company and for reseller purposes.

A series coming up soon

So what’s in store for Correctbook now? Recently Sam went to Rwanda for five days for the biggest African project so far: Some 15.000 Correctbooks were handed out to children in the most remote areas of the country. Sam had his adventures put on video and is going to publish a series of these. Sam: “Our ultimate goal with these video’s is to increase our impact and show the world what we are doing. Correctbook is growing and helps to improve school material and by doing so, makes education more accessable for children. Everyone should be able to join in on this!” The first episode will be published in June on the Correctbook website.