Saturday 4 August 2012

A Book in Every Hand - In Action!


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.



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