World Book Day

On World Book Day…find out the difference books are making to the orphans and vulnerable children we support in rural Northern Malawi.

Sarah’s blog 2/3/23

On World Book Day, I want to share some photos with you. These photos aren’t the usual fun photos that will be shared all over social media today.

Children at many schools will be dressing up as their favourite characters from fiction books to celebrate World Book Day. This is great fun and celebrates the importance of reading, love of books, favourite authors and most loved stories.

The children we help to support in Malawi are aged between 4 and 20 and all deserve to have an education and access to books. Our Literacy Project is addressing literacy for those in the nursery to the students in Bright Futures Secondary School. Previously, books were few and far between. How can a child be a confident reader if they don’t have access to books?

We are gifting boxes of books to rural primary schools where reading material is at a minimum and children are sitting on the floor in classrooms. A library has been built (The Emma Buchanan Rainbow Library) which now has a full wall of books of all subjects for children to read in the library and also to borrow. There are some computers in the library too (no internet yet) where students are learning to to type and learning about using computers.

All 75 pre-school children have been given a book each to keep. There are also picture books been donated to the nursery. All of these vulnerable children, have missed out on years of pre-reading. They weren’t able to sit on an adult’s knee as a baby and have books read to them daily. They weren’t given the opportunity to turn pages and look at pictures and then pretend to read the story by following the words with their fingers. I wonder, how many hours of ‘reading’ have our children had before they even get to school? These children have missed out on all of that.

So let’s celebrate, on World Book Day, that these children now have access to books every day. Let’s celebrate that the students in the new Bright Futures Secondary School have text books, bibles and dictionaries, as well as access to the library. Because of the School Literacy Project, will we see literacy levels increase amongst these vulnerable children in the next few years? Education is their way out of poverty. Education is the key to a better and brighter future for them. Education means chances and choices. Let’s celebrate that things are changing for these children and books are a big part of this change.

Here is the link to the fundraiser for the next classrooms at Bright Futures Secondary School https://gofund.me/ece5753a We would be so grateful for any donations to ensure that we can continue to build phase 2 of Bright Futures Secondary School and ensure that the education of the most vulnerable young people can continue.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the photos, Sarah x

The first boxes of books that we sent that people had kindly donated. This was an amazing day for these children who were delighted to be able to look at these books with their friends.

Seventeen boxes of books were gifted to Chambo Primary School
Children sit on the floor at Chambo Primary School…only the p8 class has tables and chairs
At Bright Futures Secondary School – we sent bibles donated by St Michael’s Church, Slateford Road, Edinburgh
We are hoping that by gifting books to preschool children, literacy levels might start to improve as children become more confident readers
S2 students at Bright Futures Secondary School
This was the first time that these preschool had sat at tables and chairs. They enjoyed the novelty and liked choosing a book each to look at
Looking at books in Emma’s Rainbow Library – named in memory of Emma Buchanan
Finding out how to use a computer
As well as lots of donated pre-loved books, we have sent a selection of books about black people in history and black role models, and Levison has been able to buy books written by Malawian authors
Mwiza has additional needs and isn’t able to attend school. He has been given toys and games to stimulate him and to help his muscle strength and coordination. His youngest sister has started school a year earlier than was expected because she is very able. Is this because she has had access to books at home?
We were very grateful to receive a grant from The Souter Charitable Trust which we used to buy text books for Bright Futures Secondary School

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