I visited the school in October. I worked with the Librarian to assemble more chairs on October 15-17. The Girls' Libary was very small and it became smaller when the bookshelves were installed. The Principal had to make another room available so that they can sit down and read.
Most of the books had several copies of the same title; sometimes as much as 100. We decided to help jumpstart the libraries of neighbouring schools by distributing. We narrowed down which schools to be given the books along with 2 bookshelves each. This has also created a lot of spaces that could use more books. I also showed them how I want the magazines distributed e.g. Girls get Popular Science, Boys get Popular Mechanics etc.) Girls chairs are sufficient, we need 15 more chairs at the upper level of the Boys' Library. We can then start putting chairs at the lower level. We are still using the old tables until funds are available to buy other ones that do not have middle partition.
We have made a lot of progress, but a lot still needs to be done. We keep getting better everyday. Thanks to the Global Community that affirms the adage " it takes a village to raise a child". Your work at GlobalGiving makes the smile go round. Thank you.
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Books have now been arranged on the shelves. Books that have several copies have been sorted out for distribution to local school libraries. More chair legs have been bought and shipped to complete the seat shells currently waiting for legs in the Girls' Library.
We collected a list of all secondary schools in the same town as Christ's School with the intemtion of distributing excess from multiple copies of the same book. We decided to keep 4 copies of each book divided as 2 for girls' library and two for boys libraries in order to maximise the limited space we have to include several varieties of books.
I will return to the school in October to personally inspect how far we have gone. So far, it is the best library in the state and one of the best secondary school libraries in Nigeria. Student librarianship; an age old culture of the school has been broght back.They manage the libraries after hours. This teaches a lot of leadeship, and keen competition because only the brilliant students get picked fo such responsible positions.
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I was in the school in January. The School Librarian has just passed on and a younger male has been employed to replace her. We walked through together with the teacher in charge to inpsect the furniture that were delivered. Some of the bolts were lost in transit and IKEA has gladly replaced them for us. We went through the process of installtion together so that the ones poorly fixed could be corrected. Many chairs have the legs pending at the girls's section. I assured them that we will go out to solicit for more funds in order to complete them.
The Alumni donated a television to the Boys' Section Library with some motivational movies like Akeelah and the Bee and Lean on me. The students watched them and were very happy. I spoke to the State Education Commissioner to see if we could get a professional Librarian. This is in process. Thank you.
Wura Ajibade
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