Monthly Mobile Library for Albanian Children

Spring is a beautiful time in the mountains as nature begins to wake up to the early shafts of sunshine, trees and bushes shoot new young green leaves and the temperature is increasingly warm.  Ilir and the Mobile Library have continued to visit the villages and schools high in the mountains throughout the winter. For two weeks in January the Mobile Library could not travel into some of the villages as the snow was so deep and the roads impassable. 

Some of the children who come to the Mobile Library have been coming for many years and look forward to seeing Ilir.  Ardi, 11 years old and Beni, 13 years old are brothers from Babine village who attend hte local elementary school.  They come every month and look for a new book each to read.  As they are regular users, Ilir gives them two books each month as he knows they will enjoy both books and will make use of the information they learn.  Their favourite books are those on science and also adolescence and the changes that the body goes through when adolescence begins.  Parents and schools are ill-equipped to provide information to young people about puberty, adolescence or becoming independent so the carefully chosen books that the library contains are a vital source of information for young people like Ardi and Beni.

For other groups of young people like the five adolescent girls from the Roma community, who were not enabled to complete their primary education due to traditional family practices of removing girls from school as they reach puberty, the books and information in the library is also helping them to understand their bodies and their future roles as mothers.  Many Roma families are illiterate so to have this group of 5 dedicated readers using the Mobile Library is wonderful and shows the need for this literary resource even in the administrative city of the district.

Now the warmer weather is here, the library will be arranging many more games and sport activities so the need for new footballs, volley balls, skipping ropes, tennis racquets and skittles is upon us.  Can you contribute to this much needed equipment to ensure the children can play team games?  Although sport is a lesson in the schools, most schools have no sports equipment or a field or gymnasium to use.

Next month the Mobile Library will also have its paintwork renewed; the harsh weather conditions; harsh heat in the summer and extreme cold, ice and snow in the winter and the harsh detergents have stripped the colour off the exterior of the library, so a make-over is well over due.  The new look library will be included in our next report.

A very big thank you to all the new and regular supporters of the Mobile Library!  Your donations have helped us to keep the library going in the last 12 months, we hope we can count on your support for the next year.