By Ingrid Jones | Executive Director
Children in Tropoje District have a very long summer school break - three and a half months! Schools broke up at the end of May and will not restart until mid-September. Although some children do not enjoy school and look forward to not doing lessons, for others the holidays are a time of isolation and boredom in small hamlets or homes on the mountains.
Parents are busy in the fields ensuring there will be enough produce to store for the winter months and many children also help out in the fields or take care of the cows, sheep or goats. But what else do they occupy their time with? For boys there is more freedom than for their sisters or other girls who must remain close to the home or help their mother with the household chores. So boys can go and play in the fields or go and have a swim in the local river, but there is little else for leisure pursuits or arranged activities.
This is where the Mobile Library helps to break the monotony and boredom of long summer breaks in the mountains. The regular monthly visits enable the children to gather in one place and to chat with school friends, to exchange the book for another one, to receive sketches to colour at home and to play some simple games. Children frequently walk across the fields for 30 or 45 minutes to reach the library from their home. During a recent visit to Babin, the weather was really bad and sheets of rain fell, but we still found twenty children crowded around the library, some with umbrellas, eager to have another book and take some sketches home to colour. The children's ages ranged from 6 to 17 years old with an equal mix of girls and boys. The books chosen ranged from Hamlet to books for preschool children. Two girls we spoke to told us that they had been coming to the library for two years and it was GREAT!
Despite the poor weather the children were not ready to leave after choosing their books, so Alda the Project Manager decided to organize some simple games. Dividing the group into two groups of equal numbers the two teams battled it out to guess the film, play or song. Next the children formed a circle and one child had to go away and decide on a famous person that the others had to guess. Much frustration occurred when the usual repetitive questions did not enable them to guess who the person was. A short game of football with the only one remaining ball ensued before the children left for home. This scenario occurs daily for Ilir and his assistant, demonstrating the need these children have for the Mobile Library. The summer months do not see the teachers requesting books and materials, but come September they will also return.
What do we need to make the summer break a little less monotonous for the children and young people? Games equipment like volley balls, footballs, skipping ropes, sets of skittles, bats and balls, puzzles, crayons and paints and colouring and sketch books. A colouring book per child and a set of coloured pencils would make a big difference. Some of the books in the library have now been in service for three years and they are becoming worn, so we would like to replace them with newer versions. Can you help us to achieve these aims and give a little pleasure to the children of the mountains?
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