Friday, May 29, 2015

The books have a home!


There are few projects while volunteering with the Peace Corps that you can actually “finish.”  So, I’m happy to say that our school library finally has a home, and is up-and-running.

In October 2013 I asked friends and family to donate library books to our school, as I saw that there were NONE.  Two years later we have over 1,600 books!  The Ministry of Education has promised to continue to send boxes every year, so hopefully in time the library will continue to grow, and this is only the beginning.

During the last school year I was running the library out of my classroom, but the boxes of donated books just kept coming, and they outgrew my shelves.  This year, teachers shifted classrooms around and we were able to provide an entire classroom that is to be used exclusively as a library.


This is just a final note of gratitude to all of the generous givers that contributed to this project.  We talk a lot about sustainability in the Peace Corps; I’m confident that these books, the impact of the stories within them, the literacy skills that are built, and the curiosity that blossoms will live on in the lives of these young Namibians who now have access to a beautiful library.