Room to Read Blog

In Zambia, Westwood Basic School Builds a Habit of Reading by Bringing Parents to the Table

In 2010, Westwood Basic School in Zambia’s rural Kafue province got its very first library. Everyone was excited about the new resources—especially the Teacher-Librarian, Ms. Nalumaba. But in 2011, it was clear that there was still a long way to go in inculcating the habit of reading among the students and the community in general. In order to address this need, our team called together parents and community members for a meeting to discuss some of the challenges at hand.

A few of the issues that came to light were the busy lives of both students and parents, widespread adult illiteracy and—to a certain extent—lack of engagement by teachers. Our team explained the Room to Read vision and strategy, and encouraged the parents to take an active role in their children’s education. Recommendations at the close of the meeting included a commitment to closer communication between the school and parents as well as commitment from parents to encourage their children to borrow books from the newly-established library.

Recently, our team returned to Westwood Basic School for one of our regular visits and was pleased to see a great deal of progress since that meeting just a year and a half ago. Library usage is higher than ever, and an increasing number of students are borrowing books. Several community-members are actively involved in running the library and reading with children there, and teachers are utilizing it for class time.

Beyond the walls of the school library, things have changed dramatically as well, with many homes in the surrounding area having established mini “library corners” since the meeting in 2011. The N’gambi family is one example. Mr. and Mrs. N’gambi maintain a library corner in their home and, after noticing a passion for drawing in their daughter, Jessica, purchased a drawing book to add to their collection.

Nearby, the Meyembe family has had a similar experience. Their 12-year-old daughter, Yosiya, is a 7^th grade library prefect. Her parents are both on the community’s School Library Committee and often borrow books from the library themselves. Mrs. Meyembe, who just completed 12^th grade herself, says her children’s performance in school has improved as their participation in the library management has increased. Like the N’gambi family, the Meyembes also maintain a library corner in their home to encourage evening reading.

Learn more about our work in Zambia.

In Nepal, Community Engagement Turns One School Library into a Hive of Activity

Three siblings are huddled over a book. The eldest is narrating. Her sister—also working diligently on a homework assignment—nods slowly, occasionally requesting that her older sister repeat a paragraph. At just two months old, the youngest is peacefully sleeping in his cradle.

Pratikshya, Pragya and Pragyan start most days this way, even though the youngest participant isn’t likely to remember.  Next door, Santosh and his father are ensconced in a similar scene. A few houses down, Ganesh is reading his mother a story while his sister listens in.

Pratikshya, Santosh and Ganesh are all students of Shree Jana Jagriti Lower Secondary School, located seven hours from the capital of Kathmandu. All three of them admit to reading at least one book before school each day, something that’s become a regular occurrence in the community since the doors of the school’s Room to Read library opened in 2001.

“After we established the library,” says Manoj Subedi, Room to Read’s School Libraries Program Associate, “we helped the school with the awareness campaign about the positive impacts of reading and worked on motivating them to use the library frequently.” At first sight, parents sitting with their children reading might not seem like a major event, but it is exactly this kind of activity that helps children develop a lifelong habit of reading.

The school’s chairman, Dev Bahadur Rana Magar, saw a stark difference in the community after the literacy awareness campaign. “Members of the local community rarely loaned books before because they assumed that the library catered only to the students,” he says. “The awareness camp dispelled that and introduced them to the library’s various resources.”

Som Bahadhur Mauarati has a son at Shree Jana Jagriti. “I was surprised to find books to suit my level,” he says. “Earlier I asked my son to loan books for me, but now I visit the library on my own whenever I have free time.” He is currently devouring a book about yoga in his spare time.

And it’s not just the adults of the village who are benefitting—the library has been a hub of activity for students like Santosh, an 8^th grader, for over a decade now. Santosh says the storybooks in the library helped him to be analytical thinker.

“I am reading Ghost’s Flute now about a cowardly boy,” he says. “The main character believes that ghosts gather in the bamboo groove near his house to play flute at night because he doesn’t realize bamboo ‘sings’ in a slight breeze. He soon realizes his mistake and becomes more practical after discovering the truth.” The moral, says Santosh, is not to jump to conclusions. As Santosh discovered, some of life’s greatest lessons can often be found on the pages of a book.  

Learn more about our work in Nepal. 

In India, Mandal Parishad Primary School Students Take Charge of Their Library

Located 62 miles from the regional capital of Hyderabad, Mandal Parishad Primary School partnered with Room to Read to establish its first-ever school library in 2008.

That same year, a Child Management Committee was formed to maintain checkout registers and ensure overall upkeep of the facility. Common across many of our school library projects, these student committees foster ownership and help teach skills like responsibility and accounting.

At Mandal Parishad Primary, the Child Management Committee is particularly active and regularly organizes literacy-themed events at the school. The last time our team stopped by, the schoolyard was buzzing with activity. 

Unable to contain her enthusiasm, a 5th grader named Smitha filled us in. “I am participating in the reading competition today,” she said. “My parents are coming to see me!” In addition to Smitha's contest, the day also included storytelling exercises and time for the students to read aloud to members of the local community—many of whom are illiterate.

Beyond these special events, says Ms. Karuna See, the school’s headmistress, the library has an incredible impact on the day-to-day operations of the school. “Not only has the absenteeism from classes dropped,” she reported with a smile, “but the level of community engagement in the school’s activities has also increased.”

Ms. See went on to share how the formation of the Child Management Committee for the library inspired other students to start similar operations. “I am amazed at the leadership capabilities of these children,” she says. 

Various clubs within the school have now taken on such causes as health and hygiene, organizing cultural activities and disseminating news to the local community. The health committee has even gone door-to-door with a grassroots campaign to decrease waste—inspired by a book from the shelves of their own school library.

Learn more about our work in India.

In South Africa's Eastern Cape, Library Doors Open up a World of Opportunity for One Young Reader

Sinothando doesn’t have a favorite book. He has dozens. The sheer prospect of choosing just one makes him laugh, and he rattles off a list: A Big Secret, Nkanishe, Books are Dear Friends, There Would Be No House...and those are just the beginning.

Hearing Sinothando’s enthusiasm, it’s hard to imagine the bright 5th grader as anything other than a confident, capable reader, but as he explained to our team, that wasn’t always the case.

Sinothando lives with his grandmother in a squatter camp in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, meaning he must walk 10 kilometers to school each day. His grandmother is illiterate and the only source of income for she and her three grandchildren is a monthly stipend from the government that does not even cover the family’s most basic needs.

“Before Room to Read built a library for us,” says Sinothando. “I was very shy because I could not read and I used to get very frustrated in class as I could not answer a single question.” He is now a fluent reader, and is proud of how far he’s come.

“My regular visits to the library have helped tremendously,” he says.  “I have improved my pronunciation and often study on my own at home.”

Sinothando is one of the Lumanyano Primary School library’s most regular customers, and shows no signs of slowing down. “Room to Read provides us with very interesting and captivating books,” he says. “It now takes me only a few days to finish reading a book because I am always curious to read the following chapter!”

Reading has opened up a new world of imagination for Sinothando—one that allows him to dream of a life beyond the squatter camp where he currently lives. “Education is the only solution for me because I will one day afford to buy a house with electricity, beautiful furniture, clothing and a car for my family,” he says honestly.

In the future, Sinothando dreams of becoming a social worker to help empower the children in his community to avoid abuse, rape and other problems. “Without an education,” he says, “I cannot help my community.”

Learn more about our work in South Africa.

Spotlight on Sustainability: Checking up on a Completed Library Project in Laos

The library at Lakhonepheng Complete Primary School in Salavan, Laos is always neat and well-organized, thanks to the school’s dedicated staff. “The selection of our school for a library is so meaningful for our community,” says principal Bouaphan Dokdaoheuang, who notes that the village is more than two hours’ drive form the provincial center.

The school has been maintaining the library entirely on its own since Room to Read’s three-year support period ended in 2011, so when our team returned for an annual monitoring visit to find it running as smoothly as ever, we were extremely pleased.

The school’s teacher-librarian is an extremely energetic 23-year-old named Daosavanh, who says her favorite part of her job is creating interactive activities and games related to the storybooks on the shelves. “The library isn’t just about reading good books,” she says, “but it is also like a student center—a comfortable place where they can explore their infinite imaginations.”

“I never tell the children to be quiet when coming into library,” shares Daosavanh. “Instead, I read for them and encourage them to do many activities.” Her technique is working, she says, adding that, “their excitement tells me that they will be back another day.”

It would seem Daosavanh is on to something with her library management style, as several of the 4^th and 5^th graders have started volunteering as book classification assistants.

When visiting Lakhonepheng Complete Primary School recently, our team met one eager young reader named Kingsada, who insisted upon sharing his story. Now in 3^rd grade, Kingsada comes into the library each day to check out a new book. Clutching his latest storybook selection to his chest, he recalled his first experience in the library. “My teacher told a story from a book with beautiful pictures called A Bunny and a Carrot,” he shared, beaming. “I liked the story so much and looked through it many times on my own—page by page—to see the nice drawings, [and] it became one of my favorite books!”  

Kingsada’s story is one of many, says Daosavanh, that shows how much reading habits at at Lakhonepheng Complete Primary School have changed over the past few years. “Many teachers say to me that it must be hard to wear two hats at the same time—to teach as well as to take responsibility on the library operation,” she says. “To tell the truth, I don’t feel that at all, because I can see the dramatic improvement of my students reading skills since we have the library.”

Learn more about how other Room to Read libraries are doing based on the findings of our School Library Post-Completion Study.

Guest Blog from South Africa: Mouma's Story

Shauna Carey is Room to Read’s Marketing and Communications Associate. In this guest post she shares her experience on a recent visit to Room to Read schools in South Africa.

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Nkadimeng Primary school is less than two hours from Pretoria, but its rural setting makes the high-rise buildings and bustling streets of the capital feel a world away. We pull up to the gates just as classes are starting. The schoolyard is a hub of frenzied activity with hundreds of blue and grey uniforms scurrying in all directions.

Room to Read has been partners with Nkadimeng since establishing its first library in 2010, and also introduced our Reading and Writing Instruction program there earlier this year.

Our visit included readings, storytelling and songs from students of all ages in the library. It’s a beautiful space, adorned with fully-stocked bookshelves and brightly-colored murals about the importance of education, and the perfect backdrop for the excited group of students who proudly displayed their reading skills for their visitors.

It’s clear that the library has already had an effect on the students’ reading habits, and seeing their unbridled enthusiasm, it was hard to believe that the library had experienced a somewhat slow start.

When Room to Read’s three-year support period began, teachers and administrators participated in the regular training sessions help by our team as planned, but found that with more than 700 students and no full-time librarian, they did not have time to put that training to use. For the first few months, library traffic was low and the resources were not being fully-utilized.

At this point, it was clear that the staff needed help, so they went to the local community in search of volunteers. They found Mouma Mokubjane.

Mouma grew up just 2km away from Nkadimeng, and has lived in the community her whole life. She has two young children now, who attend another school in the district, but when she heard that Nkadimeng was looking for a volunteer librarian, she jumped at the opportunity.

“Getting the library period scheduled for all classes was my big challenge,” says Mouma, whose first order of business was to help teachers and students alike get acquainted with the new resources. In the beginning, she would collect a set of books and bring them to each classroom—helping the teacher see how they could be used to enhance the existing curriculum. “Once they saw how helpful the books were,” she says, “teachers started bringing their classes to the library more and more.”

Now that all classes have regular library periods, Mouma is focused on planning activities that are fun and nurture students’ budding literacy skills. One of her favorites is helping them interpret their favorite local-language books into plays, which they perform for their peers.

For this activity, Mouma focuses on books that cover important social issues in the community, like HIV and AIDS. Approximately 50 percent of Nkadimeng’s students are orphans (largely due to the epidemic’s prevalence in the region), so she chooses stories that discuss prevention and destigmatization. “It teaches the children that they must not be scared of people who have [HIV] because they are just like everyone else, and lets them know about how to take precautions,” she says.

It’s clear that Mouma loves volunteering at Nkadimeng, but I couldn’t help but wonder why she chooses to spend so many hours at one school when her own children attend another. “Literacy is the way we can improve this whole community,” she said without hesitation. “I want to see all the children here succeed.”

Learn more about our work in South Africa.

Guest Blog from Sri Lanka: Sajitha's Library Club

Trish Flanagan is a project fellow from the Clinton School of Public Service, who is currently researching community engagement best practices for our School Libraries. This work will inform Room to Read’s Global Guidelines on Family and Community Engagement. Trish has worked as a high school teacher at the Texas-Mexican border and a school principal in Honduras. In this guest blog, she shares her experience visiting one community in Sri Lanka.

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The room was dark and hot, full of eager library club members sitting in plastic chairs and a few visitors standing against the wall of the small house.  The rest of us sat quietly as the library club president, 11 year-old Sajitha, flanked by her executive officers, welcomed everyone to the meeting.

In a rural, farming community in central Sri Lanka, the team of dedicated Room to Read staff, brought me to this weekly library club meeting. We had spent the last few weeks darting around the country; visiting energized government schools and awe-inspiring libraries in the homes of young students. Yet, sitting in that small house, watching the bright eyes of the students and their quiet parents as Sajitha opened the meeting, I was amazed.

Sajitha’s family, living in this simple 2-bedroom house with curtains blowing in the doorways to offer privacy, transformed one of the bedrooms into the library.  The library is organized exactly as the Room to Read library at school; bookshelves holding books organized by reading levels and topics, a small desk covered with student drawings from the stories they read, a meticulous checkout list and a few English-Sinhala dictionaries.

A few minutes after the meeting started, I wanted to ask the students how they created the club. They were very shy, so I pulled out a few of my teacher tricks to encourage the students to feel more comfortable.

Sajitha, the president, proudly smiling in her chair, explained that she asked her two friends, the executive officers, to start the club. Her parents were very excited to oblige and offered the club a room in their house. One by one, students invited their friends to check out books and attend meetings. One parent even said that many adults in the nearby community check out books and have improved their reading with year-round access to books right in the neighborhood. With training and support provided during community awareness raising meetings at the library, Room to Read staff helped to prepare these students to bring their love of reading to their homes. This small library club, started by such a young girl, is changing the lives and possibilities for an entire community.

While this library club is amazing, it is not at all surprising. The work that Room to Read teams do, with the communities they serve, is incredible. Parents and school staff excitedly explain that Room to Read is different from other programs. They do not only deliver books and library resources, the staff build relationships and teach the community about the habit of reading and maintaining the library. What is even more outstanding is the energy and determination of these rural communities, all challenged with financial stress, and some, like in the northern regions of the country, are rebuilding their communities after 20 years of civil war. The schools and families place a high value on education and when offered support from Room to Read, incredible things happen.

During an interview with community members, one parent, leaning forward in his chair, explained that before they had nothing and now have an opportunity for a new life, calling rebuilding the school and establishing a library a “different kind of change.”

Learn more about our School Libraries.

New Library Starts Reading Revolution at Nonhinehae Complete Primary School

Nonhinehae Complete Primary School sits in the urban center of one of Laos’s southernmost provinces. With a relatively large population of 412 students, finding enough resources to serve the entire student body is a constant challenge, so in 2011 the school’s headmaster was delighted to begin the year with an announcement. “It is with great happiness and pride that I tell you,” he began, “that soon we will have a new library at our school.”

After the announcement, students and teachers alike were abuzz with anticipation. As the books and materials began to arrive later in the year, many students volunteered to lend a hand with the library setup, eager to start checking out books immediately.

Since the library’s inauguration, it has been packed at all hours. During their designated class time, students can be found perusing the shelves for their favorite book with tenacity—clambering to check it out in time. After school, it has become a common sight for groups of children to sit together in under the shade of a tree until 6:00 or 7:00 at night devouring new titles.

“This is the most excited I have ever seen the students in my entire teaching career,” says the school’s teacher-librarian, who notes that class discussions have gotten more lively since his pupils have started to read more on their own.

“When I was growing up, books were scarce—especially in remote areas,” says another teacher. “Most of the time we had to share one book among the entire class.”

Beyond the observations of the school’s staff, our team got a firsthand account of the library’s impact at Nonhinehae Complete Primary School during a recent follow-up visit. “Thank you for the nice library!” said one eager young student. “I really love reading there with my friends.”

Learn more about our School Libraries program.

Photo Blog: Teacher Training Transforms Classroom in Rural Nepal

As nineteen hands shoot up in the air, third grade teacher Indra Bhandari can’t help but smile. She calls on one student for a response to the question she’s posed, and a chorus of voices meets her ears, providing the answer in unison. It’s a pattern that continues throughout the lesson, with the student that has been called upon straining to be heard over the commotion.

The events of the day are a common scene at Shree Krishna Nepal Rastriya Primary School, which launched a partnership with Room to Read in 2008. Since that time, Room to Read has worked with the community of Pyuthan to establish a school library, construct new classrooms and provide support and materials for literacy instruction. The classrooms now teem with eager students, many of whom walk for more than two hours to school each day.

“The materials from the Reading and Writing Instruction program have helped us a lot,” says Ms. Bhandari.  “The word pinwheels, alphabet cards, consonant-vowel charts and posters help the students to grasp the fundamental aspects of Nepali language and the subtle nuances sprinkled throughout it.”

Today she is preparing the class for a group exercise that involves the word pinwheels, which have different letter combinations on each layer that can be lined up to create a full word or sentence. “I separate the class in groups,” explains Ms. Bhandari. “Afterward, I have them recite the words and sentences they made using the tool.”          

She has introduced activities like the pinwheel game in an effort to make the classroom more interactive and lively—a concept she learned during her in-service training, provided by Room to Read.  The training has led to a fundamental shift in Ms. Bhandari’s teaching methods, and in three short years she has already seen impressive results. “My students are actively participating in class now,” she says. “They are no longer passive listeners as before.”

See more photos of Ms. Bhandari's classroom:

Learn more about our work in Nepal.

A Lesson in Dedication from Chimbundire Basic School in Zambia

Chimbundire Basic School in Katete never had a library, but its teachers and administrators didn’t let the lack of resources get in the way of ensuring the highest possible quality education for their young students. With only a few books, the school implemented a reading program once per week, and held story sessions under a tree on the school grounds.

When our team in Zambia first visited the school and saw the enthusiasm for reading of the school’s 1,000 students, we knew we wanted to partner with Chimbundire Basic to build a library. With more books and trained librarians, we thought, imagine what they could do!

For this project we would have to start from scratch. An average class size of 114 meant that there was no existing space to spare for bookshelves, so we prepared to build a brand new structure that would both house a library and provide additional storage for the school.

While our team got to work on the building design, the community leaders in Katete met to discuss how they could commit a significant portion of the project costs (as is required by Room to Read), knowing that their extremely rural setting did not provide many resources.

In the end it was decided that each village served by the school would take an entire day molding bricks for the new library. The next day, the neighboring village would do the same, and the rotation would continue until enough bricks were made to finish the project.

After the building was complete, Room to Read provided brightly-colored children’s books to stock the shelves along with chairs and desks for library activities. Then we conducted training (the first of several to take place over the next three years) for three teachers, a school administrator and one member of the community on library management skills like book leveling and community engagement.

In the months since Chimbundire Basic got its first-ever library, things have started to change. More committed than ever to ensuring all children in their community gain a solid foundation in reading, the school’s teachers have begun to take time out of classroom instruction to conduct reading activities in the library. “It is so lovely to have our reading program conducted there,” says the school’s head teacher.

A weekly library period for each class to read and check out books has been implemented school-wide, and the facility remains open before and after school so that students can enjoy the new books in their free time as well. Some of the students still like to take books out to read under the old “library tree,” but they no longer have to.

Learn more about our work in Zambia.