Building libraries for children

November 23, 2010

Lubuto Library Project

President Kenneth Kaunda leading the audience in singing.

The Lubuto Library Project provides libraries as spaces for children to learn, read, do art and drama. There are now two sites within the city of Lusaka, Zambia. The first site, located at the Fountain of Hope orphanage in a neighborhood named Kamwala, began in 2007 and the second opened last week in Garden Compound.

The libraries consist of three buildings – an insakha or gathering space to sit, discuss, reach decisions affecting the community, a building for art and drama activities, and the largest building for the library collection of books for children and teens. The libraries are open to anyone in the community – child or adult – but have a special emphasis of services and activities for orphans and the street children who cannot afford to pay school fees and attend school. (50 % of the Zambian population is below the age of 15 and there are many many orphans as a result of HIV/AIDS).

The opening of the Garden Library was colorful and full of activity. The children prepared a drama on the life of Martin Luther King based on the book Martin’s Big Words. This was followed by a teens performing traditional dances. Later another drama explained why the tortoise has a hard shell complete with paper mache props.

Jane Kinney Meyers, director and founder of the Lubuto Library Project welcomed everyone, representatives from the Ministry of Education spoke as did the U.S. Ambassador. The President of the Zambia Library Association read a letter from Ellen Tice, President of IFLA and the chair of the Zambian Board for Books for Children read a story. The celebration culminated with Kenneth Kaunda, (see picture above) the first president of Zambia leading the children and guests in singing and then spoke of the importance of reading and education for the development of the country, Interrupted once by rain, the celebration lasted well into evening.

Many people came to the opening celebration including neighborhood children pictured below - those who will use the library and those who we hope will come with their mothers and sisters and brothers.

Building Lubuto Library in Garden Compound

Many workers built the Lubuto Library including cement workers, carpenters, plasterers and thatchers. I spent many hours watching the thatchers at work and tried to capture the process in the following photos (and learning much about what works and doesn't work when uploading/sizing/placing of images):

Lubuto Library buildings under construction.

Preparing the grasses and bundling them.

Delivering bundles of grasses to the thatcher.

Thatching the roof peak.

Library roof from the inside.

I plan to spend one day a week at the library telling stories, reading picture books, perhaps a middle grade book chapter by chapter and poetry to children and their care givers. And, of course, hope to hear stories and poems in exchange.

Mary