After the shipment of books arrived we had the big job of
sorting out the contents. Some of the books will be donated to school
libraries, some we will help community schools begin their own libraries and
reading clubs, others will become part of the Bookbus collection and yet others
are destined to be part of the book in every hand appeal.
As last week was the final week of term we took the
opportunity to give out books to the students we have been working with over
the last 3 months. All the pupils at Twabuka were given books to take home. The
younger grades each got their own picture story book whilst the older ones got
a story book and one of the 8000 factual books very kindly donated by Miles
Kelly publishing. The children were thrilled and couldn’t quite believe the
books were actually their very own! As all the kids were getting different
books both myself and the teachers encouraged them to swap amongst themselves once
they had read, hopefully creating a circulation of the books.
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Somebody asked me what would happen if a child got a book
that was too difficult for them? I see this scheme as a way of getting books
into the community. Hopefully not just the pupils will make use of them but
maybe parents, siblings or friends. The village of SInde now had almost 300
books distributed throughout the homesteads so hopefully this will encourage
more reading!
The teachers are very interested in the factual books we
have received; they are fuelling lots of interesting conversations and
discussions. The other day it was: How do hot air balloons work? Why don’t we
feel the earth spinning? How do pine trees reproduce? We often give some
teachers a ride from the village to town and we can really debate random things
and swap interesting facts!
We also gave all the pupils at Indeco Community School their
own books. The reaction was again one of joy and almost disbelief; many
children came up to check with me that it really was ok to go home with the
books!
Growing up with access to books is something that we take
for granted, they are all around us. We asked a lot of the children if they had
any books in their homes and most answered no or just the bible. We didn’t find
a single pupil at either school who possessed their own book. But thanks to
Book Bus and the Book in Every Hand appeal they now do!
Kelly 4th August 2012
