Room to Read

On Monday 9th November Friend of EduSport, in partnership with the BUSA, EduSport Foundation and Kalingalinga EduSport, officially launched the Library Development project in Zambia.  A shipment of 17,500 books, sport equipment and second-hand laptops is currently ‘in transit’; this project has become a reality thanks to the efforts of Anne Stokes, Derek Keir, Kaluba Kangwa, St John’s School and Beaconhurst School. To bring together all the stakeholders involved in phase one of the project we hosted a workshop for our 10 partner schools. 28 representatives came from 2 private, 3 Government and 5 Community schools accompanied by EduSport community contact persons.  This allowed Friend of EduSport, led by Derek, an opportunity to provide an update on the progress of the books, disseminate information about the distribution of books, discuss the preparations in place and also the intended management strategies being employed by schools to maximise access to the library facilities. 

Friend of EduSport have now entered into partnership with the 10 schools which are representatives of Chawama, Bauleni and Kalingalinga communities.  The schools were selected by an application process and are linked to EduSport through their CBO structures and community committees.  It is a clearly stated objective of the library project that the books must be accessible to both school pupils and the wider community, therefore some time was dedicated to discuss some of the challenges likely to be faced when introducing the concept and workings of a library to communities who have never had such facilities. A section of the workshop was led by Toxie and Kelvin, giving a voice to the young people, in which they developed ideas to encourage reading and engage young people in the project.  One suggestion which was approved was the idea to initiate collective activities on World Book Day. It was proposed that this would be further developed at the ‘follow up‘ workshop due to be held once the libraries have been established and in operation for a few months.    

As a result of the positive response from schools and the communities to the Library Development project, Friend of EduSport are looking to access further support for our identified partner schools. Ahead of the all the books arriving all the schools have shown considerable commitment to ensuring preparations are undertaken to safeguard the books as a resource with legacy. Friend of EduSport has conducted site visits and partnership meetings with 5 of the schools to view the proposed space allocated for the library. It has been rewarding to see how much the schools value this development and many have already done renovations to ‘leaky roofs’, built shelves and had security gates installed. In addition, 2 schools have put plans in place to build purpose built structures for the libraries in the coming years. 

With the establishment of 10 libraries, Friend of EduSport are on the verge of achieving a considerable milestone.  We are proud of this as another indicator of our growth and development as a charity.  

An update will be available once the books are in situ.  We are grateful for all the support the project has received to date.  From the community response we feel confident the library development project will have a positive impact on literacy, the advancement of english in the communities and encourage further learning.