Two weeks in Malawi

Fancy spending your hard earned holidays helping children to read? That ‘s just what Scottish Primary school teacher Vikki Taylor did with our Book Bus  project in Malawi. 

“I wanted to do something a bit different with my summer holiday. I’d heard about the Book Bus and how it is helping children learn how to read. and I’d never been to an African country before so this was a great opportunity. 

“Although I did a lot of research before I left, nothing prepared me for the sheer numbers in primary schools and the very challenging conditions Malawian teachers work in. 

Volunteer Vikki helps get children engaged in reading 

However I was equally taken aback by the energy, enthusiasm and the insatiable desire to learn from the children. As a teacher it was a real joy to experience, “ continued Vikki. 

Malawi, located in sub Saharan Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world with 60% of the population living below the poverty line and over ½ of the population under the age of 16. Schools are poorly equipped, overcrowded and teachers face huge challenges to undertake even basic teaching in this developing country. 

The Book Bus brings books and other literacy resources to schools, builds libraries and reading corners and has a volunteering programme supported by teachers and librarians to up skill teachers and the local community. 

Vikki travelled out with another teacher for 2 weeks to join the Book Bus reading mentor programme in Mangochi, located by the Great Lake Malawi. 

“As teachers our role involved creating simple lessons and activities around books with arts and crafts and games to reinforce learning, “ explained Vikki. “It was hard work at times but great fun. 

“As a teacher I learnt so much coming to Malawi. The sheer size of the classes (120:1), often no desks, chairs, few resources and no books.  The Malawian teachers do an impressive job though. 

Meet the real Elmers in Malawi 

“It wasn’t all work though,” continued Vikki.  “The project is only 2 hours away from the Liwonde National Wildlife park so we spent the weekend there on safari with all the animals Africa has to offer including, elephants, hippos, crocodiles and buffalo”. 

“It was a real privilege to be part of this literacy programme as it has so much impact on the ground. As teachers we also worked with the local Book Bus team, sharing our skills, and teaching techniques to help them continue deliver a reading support programme long after we volunteers have left”.  

“I was surprised at what can be achieved in 2 weeks. The structures were already in place so we knew how we slotted in and how our professional skills were used in the best way during the short time we had on the project, “ said Vikki. 

The Book Bus also has a small library that local children can drop into during the afternoons. It has lots of free reading sessions, story telling, arts, crafts and outside games. 

“I was astounded about how many children turn up to the library –sometimes they queued to get in – an incredible site,” continued Vikki. “The children get opportunities to do lots activities that they can’t do in school. It was wonderful to see the hidden talents and skills that they didn’t even know they had, as they can’t do these types of activities in schools. 

“You really feel part of the community on this project as the library is right in the centre of the market area. It’s an experience I will never forget and makes me realise how lucky I am. I always wanted to be a teacher and was given the opportunity to fulfil my dreams. So many people in the world can’t and that’s what this project does. It gives children an opportunity to learn to read. When you can read, it’s a crucial step to opening up a whole new world. I feel I did have a small, and hopefully a significant, impact on the lives of some children. It’s an experience that will remain with me forever” concluded Vikki. 

The Book Bus is 10 years old this year and is looking for experienced teachers and reading mentors to join its literacy projects in Malawi and Zambia from June to September 2016.

Find out more  by visiting our volunteering pages 

Where did our school go?

Imagine turning up for school one morning and the building is no longer there? 

That's what happened yesterday when our Book Bus team arrived at ROC school in Kitwe, Zambia. The rains had been so heavy that it had washed away the main school building.

 

Book Bus Raj gets to work 

Un-phased our local team, Monica, Raj and Bwalya, rolled up their sleeves and set to work helping the local community rebuild the classroom. 

ROC school is a community school that the Book Bus has been visiting in 2015 and is part of our 2016 programme. 

 It provides education to children from the surrounding improvised area. Many of the children would not attend school if ROC school wasn't there so it was crucial to get the school classroom rebuilt before the next rains arrived. 

Bwalya swaps books for bricks for a day 

Everyone in the community chips in to do their bit including formal pupil Bryson who is the only young person in the area to make it to secondary school. 

 

Former pupil Bryson helps out

"It was a bit of a shock when we arrived to see the devastation to the school. We knew we needed to help, so we parked Book Bus George and set to help the community rebuild the school," said Book Bus Reading Champion, Bwalya Chimba

Raj & the pupils take a break 

"This community really understands that importance of education so set to work to get the school back up and running. We'll be back running our Book Bus reading sessions as soon as we can," said Bwalya.  "The children love the Book Bus sessions and we want to ensure we continue to help them develop a love of reading," concludes Bwalya as she swaps bricks for books with the rest of the school community. 

Want to help with a donation? 

Volunteer with the Book Bus in the UK

Tom volunteered in between travelling

Volunteers are the backbone of what we do. We know that due to personal commitments many people would like to volunteer with us, but don't want to leave the UK. 

We've recently created lots of new opportunities for people to spend time volunteering with us on specific UK projects. 

Read about Tom's experience working with our marketing team... 

"I volunteered for Book Bus in between my travels. I was eager to do something useful with my free time so sought some voluntary work which I could do from home. 

From the word go, the Book Bus team were very welcoming and showed great trust with the projects that they set me. I felt like I was making a positive contribution with the tasks that I completed. 

The work was varied and included editing newsletter articles, researching children's book authors, searching for new online forums and literacy websites as well as identifying new channels of communication which we could use to reach out to new volunteers. I made some real progress and earned a huge amount of satisfaction from creating new leads for a worthwhile charity. 

I would encourage anyone with an interest in books or experience in working with children to offer their time to Book Bus. 

I'm now off to spend time with my next big passion - travel and skiing..."

We're looking for volunteers that can help spread the word about the Book Bus. If you have marketing experience and can spare a few hours each week, we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch with marian@thebookbus.org

Your work WILL make a difference. 

Arturo’s Book of the Week

Book Bus Ecuador

“The True Story of the Three Little Pigs”

"Everybody knows the story of the Three Little Pigs. Or at least they think they do. But I'll let you in on a little secret. Nobody knows the real story, because nobody has ever heard my side of the story. I'm Alexander T. Wolf. You can call me Al. I don't know how this whole Big Bad Wolf thing got started, but it's all wrong. Maybe it's because of our diet. Hey, it's not my fault wolves eat cute little animals like bunnies and sheep and pigs. That's just the way we are. If cheeseburgers were cute, folks would probably think you were Big and Bad too. But like I was saying, the whole big bad wolf thing is all wrong. The real story is about a sneeze and a cup of sugar.”

Our new book of the week in Ecuador

And so opens Jon Scieszka’s  “True Story of the Three Little Pigs” or, in its Spanish version, “La verdadera historia de los tres cerditos”. We introduced this book to the Grade 7 children in Puerto Lopez during the week and they were really curious to find out if, and how, this comical parody could set the record straight and prove that the wolf’s “Big and bag” reputation was really the result of a stitch up.

Serious discussion ensued

The classes read in three groups of 8 children, each child taking turns to share the reading with the rest of the group. To add a little spice to the activity and to extract a learning outcome from the story, each group had to come up with “reasoned” answers to the following questions and present them to a “Judge” who was to deliberate the case.

1. What really caused the houses of straw and sticks to collapse?

2. Why did the wolf end up in prison?

3. How innocent were the pigs really?

4. Was the Wolf villain or victim?

With not an inconsiderable amount of mentoring, the groups produced their cases and according to their beliefs took the side of either the wolf or the pigs. A hotly argued 

Unexpected Canine support for Mr Wolf

debate ensued producing a lot of huffing and puffing that required regular enforcement of court order! 

Finally, justice was seen to be done when the Judge ruled that . . . 

Oh, but that would be telling dear readers, for you must buy your own copies to discover the Wolf’s story and deliberate on this challenging conundrum for yourselves! And when you have finished the book, why not share it with children all over the world by sending it to the Book Bus for distribution to one of our projects in Africa or Ecuador.

Happy Reading!

Special thanks to Susan Cassie and Sue Clapham for sending us these wonderful books !