One of the huge points of Peace Corps is sustainability. This is often the point that crosses my mind the most as I do a project, as many of them would frankly just be unable to happen in my absence. With this in mind, its often hard to do a grant project, realizing that you are only reaching a select few people, who may or may not change their behaviors. Having learned this hard lesson, we none the less want to address the serious issue of teachers and learning resources at Makong’onda Day Secondary School. The children are here, they are willing to read, but where will they find the resources (especially if no-one is here to teach it to them). It is with the thoughts and goal of SUSTAINABILITY in mind that we start our new library at Makong’onda Secondary School.
After the discovery of all of the books, the building of the shelves, the screaming and complaining that accompanied the discovery of the rats, we realized that simply adding the new books into the library was not a wise decision. After all, how did the books come to be in the state they were in (the teachers placed all of the books in boxes in humid, festering, storage rooms because they didn’t want the students to steal/lose/read them), why were we missing a large number of books (the students AND the teachers stole many of the books), why hasn’t there ever been a library before now (no-one knew how to run/manage/build a library before now)? After a discussion with the student prefects and the headmaster we decided to select 3 student librarians along with several of the student prefects and do a training on how to manage/care for/ and maintain a library.
Our little seminar was attended by all of the student prefects and our three librarians on an early Saturday morning. Together we studied concepts that were easy, like “why is it necessary to have a library” and concepts that were more difficult, like alphabetization. I climbed up on my soapbox for a bit, telling each and every one of them that this library was “for the students, by the students”. We talked about ways to make the students AND teachers to care for the books, including paying a small fee (1 dollar) to use the library every year. We talked about making contracts for students to sign, saying that they would be willing to pay the price of a book should they lose it, and stating what library privileges they had. By the end of the session, I had some of the kids just and determined as me to see this library succeed, it was a promising start.
After I jumped down from the soapbox, I put them through “drills” in the library. I went in, destroyed one of the shelves (put books in backwards, upside down, in the wrong order, in the wrong subject) and then made the students put them back in the right order. I also took several of the files out of the filing cabinet and made each of them show me where to put it back (they got extra points if they could actually open the cabinet on the first try without help). By the end of the day, each of the students had gotten a grasp of book organization and had great ideas for meeting with the school administrators to ask for a little money for library books.
The entire seminar in my opinion was a great success, shown even more the next week when the three librarians punctually showed up at my house to take my keys and open the library to the students. With a small amount of guidance from me, and a lot of extra small trainings (this is why we don’t put the biology tests with the Kiswahili tests), we are starting to look like an organized outfit, and even the students are helping out, by returning their books on time and taking better care of the ones they borrow. Sustainability is what we are aiming for with the library, and I believe after 3 months of successful organization and implementation by the students, and another following 8 months of my “loose” supervision, we can realistically achieve it!
After the discovery of all of the books, the building of the shelves, the screaming and complaining that accompanied the discovery of the rats, we realized that simply adding the new books into the library was not a wise decision. After all, how did the books come to be in the state they were in (the teachers placed all of the books in boxes in humid, festering, storage rooms because they didn’t want the students to steal/lose/read them), why were we missing a large number of books (the students AND the teachers stole many of the books), why hasn’t there ever been a library before now (no-one knew how to run/manage/build a library before now)? After a discussion with the student prefects and the headmaster we decided to select 3 student librarians along with several of the student prefects and do a training on how to manage/care for/ and maintain a library.
Our little seminar was attended by all of the student prefects and our three librarians on an early Saturday morning. Together we studied concepts that were easy, like “why is it necessary to have a library” and concepts that were more difficult, like alphabetization. I climbed up on my soapbox for a bit, telling each and every one of them that this library was “for the students, by the students”. We talked about ways to make the students AND teachers to care for the books, including paying a small fee (1 dollar) to use the library every year. We talked about making contracts for students to sign, saying that they would be willing to pay the price of a book should they lose it, and stating what library privileges they had. By the end of the session, I had some of the kids just and determined as me to see this library succeed, it was a promising start.
After I jumped down from the soapbox, I put them through “drills” in the library. I went in, destroyed one of the shelves (put books in backwards, upside down, in the wrong order, in the wrong subject) and then made the students put them back in the right order. I also took several of the files out of the filing cabinet and made each of them show me where to put it back (they got extra points if they could actually open the cabinet on the first try without help). By the end of the day, each of the students had gotten a grasp of book organization and had great ideas for meeting with the school administrators to ask for a little money for library books.
The entire seminar in my opinion was a great success, shown even more the next week when the three librarians punctually showed up at my house to take my keys and open the library to the students. With a small amount of guidance from me, and a lot of extra small trainings (this is why we don’t put the biology tests with the Kiswahili tests), we are starting to look like an organized outfit, and even the students are helping out, by returning their books on time and taking better care of the ones they borrow. Sustainability is what we are aiming for with the library, and I believe after 3 months of successful organization and implementation by the students, and another following 8 months of my “loose” supervision, we can realistically achieve it!
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