Books Packed And Ready For Malibas’ Local Community Schools

 

One of our Directors, Chris Mc Evoy, recently partnered up with David and Liz Linn to ship over 1000 children’s books to Maseru, where our Maliba Lodge staff will pick them up and distribute them to our local schools and community centers for the use, enjoyment and education of our local community. 

The books were collected by school children at St Macartans School in Mornington, Melbourne, Australia.

The books donated included books that make sounds and books with interactive covers, some with fur and eyes. All of the books were good quality and really colourful, which the children in Lesotho will love. These books will be very precious for the children who don’t have any books of their own.

The books are expected to arrive in Lesotho for distribution in November 2014.

The History Of The Library Book Initiative in Lesotho 

 

After identifying the need for reading material in Lesotho,  David and Liz Linn begun work with the Transformation Resource Centre (TRC), a Lesotho-based ecumenical social justice organisation [visit: www.trc.org.ls], and the South Pacific School Aid Inc (SPSA), a group with suitable reading and reference books, to send books to Lesotho for use in primary schools (Linn,2014).

The books are sorted and packed in school year groups 1 – 3, 4 – 5, 6 – 7 and secondary, including some at senior school reading level. The books are sourced in Adelaide, sent to Durban, and then up the mountains to Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. From Lesotho, TRC (as owner of the project) handles all in-country matters and distributes the books to schools which have previously not had any books, or, adds to their previously created libraries. To date, since 2007: 60292 books have been shipped to Lesotho (Linn,2014).

The project is maintained through donations and community support primarily in Adelaide, Australia. The book project is very much institutionalized within TRC, and it now exists on their annual plans. The goal is to develop the project into “A Library in Every Primary School in Lesotho” (Linn,2014).

 

Linn, L. (2014) Newsletter 2014, January 2014.