In July 2010, Books for Kids Africa director Mary Jo Amani traveled to the villages of Vinho, Vunduzi, and Mbulaua in Sofala (Mozambique) for three weeks to distribute 1130 high quality children’s books to school and community library programs, funded in part by a $6610 U.S. Embassy small grant.
Books for Kids Africa staff trained teachers in each of the three elementary schools on how to read books out loud and to use the books in mobile classroom library programs where students have the chance to select books of interest and read individually several times each week. The mobile school library program of 200 children’s books moves from classroom to classroom throughout the day and is a non-graded activity. Teachers are encouraged to rotate around the classroom to converse about the books students are reading and to engage in conversations about books. In classrooms of 50 – 70 students, this is sometimes the only opportunity students have to interact individually with teachers. Teachers might ask a student to read a few sentences out loud, tell the plot of the story, identify the story through pictures, or, they might ask a student a “higher level” thinking question about character motivations. A mix of books at all reading levels provides students in all grades with books that meet their skill needs and interests. Often a child in second grade will read at an advanced level and a child in sixth grade barely reads at all. Within the classroom, each student will find books at their level to boost their self-confidence and build on their present skills. Book bags are provided so that teachers, and sometimes older youths, can borrow books over the weekend.
In addition to the three mobile school libraries in each of the villages with 200 books each, a community lending library program was inaugurated with 200 books and 20 book bags in Vinho. See the article “Expansion of Vinho Community Library” and “Volunteers in Gorongosa” for more information.