Excuse Me, I’m Trying to Read by Mary Jo Amani, illustrated by Lehla Eldridge, is now available at www.excusemebooks.com. Profits from the writing of the book all go directly to the community lending library programs in Mozambique! Read about Mary Jo and Lehla’s trip promoting community lending libraries at www.warthogbooks.com.
The Center for Environmental Education (CEC) in Gorongosa National Park is providing lodging, food, and facilities for a three-day training workshop for twenty-five teachers and community members from the three villages where Books for Kids Africa has lending libraries. Teachers, school directors, and community library coordinators from each village will participate in a hands on workshop to familiarize themselves with books in the program and learn techniques for using books in the classroom, how to promote community lending and interest in reading, and how to use books in the program to explore environmental themes such as caring for natural resources and respecting animal life and wildlife management.
A dozen Peace Corps Volunteers are raising funds to bring a community lending library to their village. Stay posted to hear about the new sites and programs! If you are a Peace Corps volunteer who is interested in bringing a mobile classroom library or community lending library to your village, please contact Mary Jo Amani at maryjoamani@gmail.com or info@booksforafrica.org or Valerie Cooper at vcooper1701@gmail.com
Chloé MacKinnon, a volunteer from Canada in the village of Manhiça, raised $3000 toward a community library program (200 books + bookcase + training) for Manhiça in Mozambique. The program will initially benefit forty students and their families (over two hundred people) as well as teachers and students (thirty young children) from the Pikaxú Preschool. The wider community will also have the opportunity to borrow books as the library expands. Books for Kids Africa staff will visit Manhiça in mid-March and April to train community members and initiate the program.
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.
A new community library coordinator, Inez Farnela Sande, is bringing new life into the Vinho lending library project. After only a few days of training, she immediately formed a group of women interested in learning how to read themselves and to their children. The group met for the first time on Saturday, July 24th Eight women, two men, and several children attended the meeting where Inez read a children’s book on animals first in Sena (a local language) and then in Portuguese. Participants shared their knowledge and questions about animals and remained for two hours of intense discussion. Despite living close to Gorongosa National Park, many residents are unfamiliar with names, descriptions and life patterns of local animals and the books provided in the library satisfy a desire for such knowledge. Inez signed up several participants in the lending program, lending each 10 books in a book bag for up to two weeks at a time. In addition to the women’s group and lending program open to all community members, Inez has begun a children’s read aloud program on the weekends and during recess at school.
Volunteers Domingos Muala and Barbara Hasselbeck are providing regular follow-up and support to the school libraries and community lending program in all three villages where Books for Kids Africa is working—Vinho, Mbulaua, and Vunduzi. They are joined by Sinead Brien, a local Peace Corps volunteer, who uses donated books in her environmental club extension programs. Reading time serves as a “prize” after club participation and students have demonstrated high enthusiasm and demand for the activity.
Excuse Me, I’m Trying to Read! is the first book by the illustrator/writer team Lehla Eldridge and Mary Jo Amani, collaborated on after their trip around Mozambique in November of last year. Libros para Niños in Nicaragua will be publishing the book in Spanish next year for their community reading programs. We’re also exploring possibilities for publishing the book in other countries. 100% of profits from the writing of the book will go directly to community lending libraries in Mozambique.
Annika Johnson, a twelve year old homeschooler from St. Peter, Minnesota, is collecting quality children’s books in good shape to send to South Africa. She and her family will be traveling to Nelspruit, South Africa for four months this fall to mentor local children in a LEGO robotics program, as well as engaging in other activities like promoting reading through community lending libraries. Anyone interested in donating to Annika’s efforts can contact her at: ajohns14@gustavus.edu
Over $11,000 was raised in the December Fundraiser which covered the opening of the two community libraries in Nwadjahane and Vinho in Mozambique. This included the generous donation of $2000 from Jan and Jack Felderman and Bob and Nancy Felderman, all of Dubuque, Iowa, for production of the book, Excuse Me, I’m Tryng to Read.
Books for Kids Africa received a $6600 grant from the U.S. Embassy in Maputo for expanding and starting three community lending libraries in Vinho, Vinduzi, and Mbulawa in Gorogonsa. The funding will cover the purchase of 500 books in Portuguese, 60 book bags, and 6 large containers for storing books. The libraries will be inaugurated in late June/early July 2010.
The non-profit organization Ears to Our World, ETOW, sent ten short-wave radios for teachers in villages with little radio signals and access to electricity. Books for Kids Africa will work with teachers to train them on how to use the radios and create curriculum to use in classrooms with students. Radios will be given to selected teachers and communities in January and/or February for the new school year. Your donations can help fund more radios to teachers around the world. Visit www.etow.com for more information on how to help.
In early December, Mary Jo Amani, along with Books for Kids Africa’s friend Lehla Eldridge (author and illustrator) visited the villages of Mbulawa, Vinduzi, and Vinho in Gorongosa and left 110 children’s books and 11 book bags to begin a small community lending library in Vinho. We were accompanied by Domingos and Verniz, both community liaisons for Gorongosa Park. A young mother, Belinha Basto, daughter of a local leader, was trained as the local facilitator and three young people signed up to become the first “Friends of Reading” in Vinho. (In the photo featured here, Belinha is signing the book inventory list.) Three adults indicated their interest as well. Though the numbers are small, the simplicity of this program lies in the grass roots connections—a few interested readers inspire and motivate others to be curious and pursue reading. One young man in particular, Fernando, is especially eager to read and is featured in our blog.
The staff at Gorongosa National Park work with surrounding villages to help provide employment through the park and educate villagers about the importance of the park ecosystem—discouraging poaching, slash and burn agriculture, and encouraging the care and protection of local flora and fauna. Funding for schools and health clinics have drastically improved the quality of life in the villages where people were adversely affected by the lengthy war for independence and the twelve-year civil war. It is an ambitious, visionary effort on the part of the Greg Carr Foundation—to bring Gorongosa Park back as a complex, wild ecosystem, once the “jeweled” game park in Africa. We were struck by Gorongosa’s beauty and the commitment by its staff. We are delighted to be working with villages to play our part to help further their dreams of improving their lives and the lives of their children through books and reading.
booksforkidsafrica.blogspot.com/
Mary Jo Amani and Lehla Eldridge have inaugurated their first community lending library in Nwadjahane. Follow their travels and the kids’ reactions to receiving their very own community lending library to get a sense of the changes already taking place by the efforts of Books for Kids Africa.
Our goal is to raise a minimum of US $20,000 from December 6 – 10, all donations going toward the publication of ten culturally relevant titles for Mozambican children (2000 copies each).
All donations* from this fundraiser will be used to fund the development, printing and/or purchase, and placement of books into the mobile school library or community libraries and teacher training program in Mozambique in 2010. Please visit www.booksforkidsafrica.org for more information about the project.
Mary Jo Amani, along with Books for Kids Africa’s friend Lehla Eldridge (author and illustrator) visited the village of Nwadjahane Nov 24 – 27th to inaugurate the first
community lending library in Mozambique. Community leaders and over a hundred and fifty women, men, and children showed up to learn about the program. Women sang and welcomed us and the whole community participated in reading The Little Red Hen in Portuguese by playing the part of the animals in the story. Eleven community members signed up on the "Friends of Reading" Network and each borrowed a book bag with ten children’s books to take home to read and share with children in their family and neighborhood. The community needs ten more book bags (100 books total) in order to have sufficient books to meet the demands of borrowers. We’re hoping money from the fundraiser Dec. 6 – 10th will make that happen!
Nwadjahane is the birthplace of Eduardo Mondlane, the founder of the Frelimo party who led the country to independence against the Portuguese. Mondlane was an academic before becoming a revolutionary hero and taught for several years in U.S. universities. He valued education foremost and his family continues to support the development of his birthplace where thousands of students and other Mozambicans visit yearly to learn about his contribution to Mozambican history. Given his love for books and studying, it seems fitting to open the first community lending library in Eduardo Mondlane’s hometown.
British author and artist, Lehla Eldridge, accompanied Books for Kids Africa staff to several villages to observe life in Mozambique in order to adapt her South African children’s counting book to local culture and write new book for children in Mozambique. Lehla has been collaborating with Books for Kids Africa for months–see our blog on the trip to learn more about her visit. Your donation during the Dec. 6 – 10th fundraiser will help fund the design and development of new books by Lehla for Mozambican children.
Books for Kids Africa has teamed up with Ears to Our World (ETOW) www.ETOW.org, a North Carolina non-profit organization, to provide short wave radios and lesson plans for student teachers and facilitators in the mobile library program in Mozambique. Eligible teachers and facilitators will be those assigned to rural areas where radio, cable, and internet access are limited. With short wave radio’s increased access to airwaves, teachers will have the opportunity to gain knowledge in health, education, and social studies/current events in order to develop lesson plans for use in the classroom. ETOW has generously donated an initial twenty radios to kick off the program. Books for Kids Africa will be distributing the first of these radios in December to teachers who participated in the After-School Book Clubs in Machava. For those interested in hearing more about this project or who wish to donate directly to this part of Books for Kids Africa’s work, please contact us at info@booksforkidsafrica.org.
The Director of Libros para Niños www.lpninos.com in Nicaragua, Eduardo Baéz visited with the Books for Kids Africa Director to share lessons learned and insights from their experience to help orient Books for Kids Africa programs in Africa.
Eduardo discussed long-term planning and coordination for both organizations and brought several copies of the 26-book series of children’s books by Nicaraguan authors and artists, all published over the past five years by Libros para Niños in Nicaragua. The visit included a reunion with good friend singer/ songwriter/ author John McCutcheon during the National Storytelling Festival in Tennessee where John was performing. John was the first board president of Libros para Niños from 1992–95.
In June 2009, the Director of Books for Kids Africa received a grant of $4000 from the Simon J. Kirby Foundation to help purchase books for the Machava After-school Book Clubs in Matola, Mozambique. In July 2009, books were purchased and sixteen student teachers at the School for Future Teachers (Escola dos Professores do Futuro) were trained how to run after-school book clubs.
Teachers received two full days of training learning how to read books aloud and engage children in real conversations around books and how to run a free reading program where children choose their own books and read independently. Book Clubs at the local public elementary school 4 de Janeiro (January 4th School) began in late July—over 300 books were distributed and over two hundred students attended. (Some of the photos in the slide show on the home page of this website are from the after-school book clubs in Machava.)
