Voices of Africa is a new monthly Book Bus
feature, sharing stories from inspiring voices in the various Book Bus
communities. Each piece will be brought to you in the storyteller’s own words.
We hope you will enjoy the series.
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| Malawian Librarian, Roseby Gadama |
“My name is Roseby
Gadama and I am a Librarian at Malawi National Library Service in Blantyre . My
first job was in teaching. I was a primary school teacher for some years but I
thought of exploring other avenues. I applied at the Malawi National Library
Service as the job itself was not very different from what I was doing in
teaching. As a teacher I was imparting knowledge and information to the pupils
and as a Librarian my main duty is to share books and information.
"I’m Head of the
Extra-Mural Service Department in the Southern part of Malawi which is
comprised of 13 districts. The department mainly deals with outreach programmes
like establishing and organising new libraries, distributing books from different
donors to the National Library centres and other beneficiaries in the region,
monitoring and assessing libraries and also equipping other people with library
basic training.
"I joined the
National Library with a little knowledge of Librarianship but wanted to develop
this knowledge to become who I am today. My main challenge was the time I went
to study for my Degree in Library and Information Studies. It was very
challenging because I had to leave my family, husband and two children behind
to study in Botswana. We also had to find all the fees for this degree. It
wasn’t easy for my husband who had to support me, the family and lots of other
financial commitments too. It was worth it though as now I’m qualified and in a
stable job.
"The library I work
in serves a community of more than 100,000 people. It is the largest public
library in Blantyre. The library has 200 seats and everyday every seat is occupied with people studying. Other readers sit on the floor and the ground
outside the library as so many people want to use our service. Efforts are
being made either to extend the recent library or to erect some chalets outside
the library so that readers who could not find space inside could have some
shelter but it is proving difficult due to lack of funding.
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| Encouraging children to read |
"I come from the
village in the Eastern Region where many children don’t go to school due to the
long walking from the village to school. In fact there’s no school in my village
(no kindergarten or primary school or whatsoever) - to have a library or a
resource centre would be a luxury.
"Being a teacher
and now a librarian, it is my dream to have the children from my local area to
have a school nearby and a library. A library would help them in many ways,
because that’s where they’d learn more about health, farming, food and
nutrition, human rights, academic information, current affairs or just leisure.
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| Roseby joins fellow librarian Nancy for a Book Bus storytelling session |
"I appreciate the
work being done by The Book Bus in Malawi by promoting education and reading to
the needy children in the remote areas. Indeed it might look like things aren’t
changing today when the Book Bus visits the schools and do some storytelling
and some games. But in the long term children’s’ lives are changing little by
little and at the end of the day they will never be the same.
"My message to the
Book Bus? Keep it up THE BOOK BUS!!" J
Rose Gadama works
for the National Library Service at Blantyre library.
