Toby and Sabine are a son and mum team who volunteered with the Book Bus in Livingstone during 2017.
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| The daily story time sessions with Toby, Sabine & children |
Aged nine, Toby is one of our youngest volunteers. Mum, Sabine had heard about the Book Bus several years ago, but decided to wait until Toby was a little older and felt ready to participate fully. And that is just what he did. He helped deliver reading sessions in schools, as well as getting involved in the planning of reading sessions along with other volunteers. As a child, Toby could identify with many children on our projects as well as being a reading role model. Toby’s enthusiasm for reading was something he was able to share with the children he met, and he feels one of his achievements was to help make reading more fun for the children. We absolutely agree!
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| Out of your comfort zone: Meeting elephants on the way to school |
Sabine has a professional background in literacy and art, and has delivered music and drama workshops in schools, experience which she put to good use in planning and delivering sessions for the Book Bus. As Sabine pointed out, “Flexibility is essential, especially when helping to run the reading holiday clubs in Zambia as numbers of children who might turn up is hard to predict. There were occasions when groups of children grew dramatically in size as the session went on, so I really had to think on my feet!.
“Spending quality time together in such a different environment, and working together, a little out of everyone’s comfort zone, can lead to families learning a lot about each other,”
“I was impressed at how the Book Bus is aiming to make a sustainable difference, so that volunteers’ experience and expertise is shared and used to empower the local team. I was happy to share many ideas about staff development with the Zambian team,” said Sabine.
We asked Sabine and Toby what they felt they had got out of the experience, and something they both mentioned was learning about how people live in other parts of the world.
“It is one thing to read or watch TV about people living in difference countries,” they said “but to physically be there and meet the children, and be part of the Book Bus’s work to help children read is far more powerful. The children were really eager to learn and make the most of their opportunities” they agreed.
Toby felt strongly that he wanted to help children elsewhere in the world to succeed in life. He particularly enjoyed the one-to-one reading sessions that the Book Bus volunteers ran in the afternoons in local libraries.
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| The perfect travel & Book Bus buddies |
Volunteering as a family was something both Sabine and Toby wanted to try, though they felt a little apprehensive as to how they would cope. As soon as they arrived at the Book Bus project in Livingstone, they realised it was a great idea, and Sabine watched Toby getting stuck in, coping well with a new environment, and gaining in confidence as he led some of the warm up songs and games that always started the Book Bus reading sessions. They really enjoyed working together, and reckon they are perfect travel buddies.
“Spending quality time together in such a different environment, and working together, a little out of everyone’s comfort zone, can lead to families learning a lot about each other,” concluded Sabine.
Will they do the Book Bus again? They both said …”yes!”
