ASE member Peter Burrows shares details of LabAid's important work and a plea for help. 

LabAid was set up in 1990 (charity no. 1168144) by ASE member, the late Alan Welch. Having taught in Africa (including teaching science to the young Kofi Annan, later UN Secretary-General) he had been appalled by the waste when UK schools binned old, battered but still serviceable science equipment. If you replace a set of microscopes, most of the ones you were using last week are probably still usable; they may not be in good condition but are good enough.  Clamp stands get rusty, but they don't wear out. Schools that are replacing science apparatus can send the old stuff to LabAid and we check it, sort it and send it to needy schools in developing countries. Schools wishing to help, please see http://www.labaid.org/.

In some ways, 2024/25 was LabAid's most successful year. We sent out about 26 boxes of equipment per month, as against 17 the previous year. Between July 2024 and June 2025, we supplied 27 schools/colleges in 8 countries: Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Uganda and Zimbabwe, sending out 313 boxes of equipment (206 boxes in 2023/24). This improvement was largely the result of newly-recruited volunteers which enabled us both to pack more quickly and to repair and sort our stock better. One volunteer who returned 252 working microscopes (plus some scrap metal) to our store in the whole of 2024 has already returned 346 this year, with the result that for the first time our stock of unchecked microscopes has reached zero.

But we fear this cannot continue for much longer for two main reasons. Firstly, it's easy to draw up a list of what a school which has never had a laboratory before would need, but our store only contains what schools have sent us, not the same at all. Is there any point in sending graduated flasks and volumetric pipettes if we haven't got any burettes? Can you do optics work with lenses, blocks and curved mirrors without a ray box? (Answer yes, if you plot rays using optics pins, but ...). Non-scientists or unskilled volunteers can pack boxes or even be trained to carry out PAT tests, but you really need an experienced former science teacher or technician to make decisions about what constitutes a sensible package, given what's in the store. And our two ex-science teachers are ageing and will not be able to carry on much longer. So, we need one or more replacements who are able to get regularly to our store. And that is the second reason. The Amersham Free Church lets us have use of a hut in its car park, effectively rent-free. The hut is dilapidated, and the church would not be able to afford to repair the roof if - when - the next storm causes further damage. We believe we probably have only a year or two left. Alan started LabAid from his garage and, given the amount of stock we have sent out recently, a garage might suffice for storing what remains, but we don't have a source of funding to be able rent one.

So we need one or more retired science teachers or technicians and we need new, free premises. But the plus side is that the if the new volunteers can find suitable premises close to where they live, they don't need to be in or near Amersham. Have you or a friend got an empty garage, or has your old school got an empty classroom or hut?
 

Non-teacher/technician volunteers are usually not too difficult to find, sixth-formers or scientists from non-school backgrounds are often keen to help. Since joining ASE in 1963, I have served on numerous regional and national committees. I know ASE members are good at volunteering. If you would like more details on how you could ensure a future for LabAid, please contact me at peterborrows@cantab.net.

Dr Peter Borrows (Chair of the Trustees of the LabAid Foundation) and ASE Honorary Member