I became the temporary librarian on five days of family visits recently and it was fascinating. Many children knew exactly what they were interested in reading, some took a long time to even open a book and one or two were clear they didn’t want to take one away.
Those who are first-time borrowers have a set of borrowers’ rules to read before they take a book. Here’s Linda showing them to Dung, a young novice monk.
We put the books into strong ziploc bags to keep them clean and dry.
One of CEFs assistants, Ngoc, looks after the loans and returns recording them on a spreadsheet.
At the moment we can’t take books to children as often as we’d like. We’re planning on increasing visits of the 'mobile library' once CEF has the funds for many more books and a vehicle, but we already have funds for someone to do this great job.
Weekends are the only time the 'mobile library' can work for now as the children are at home mainly on weekends. As they are spread out over a very large area it takes a long to time to see all the children in Quang Nam; about 10 days.
It’s such a great idea to give these young people the chance to read books for pleasure. To enjoy themselves without having to try to remember what they’ve read for an exam. To just read.
Some children write a little note to say what they liked about the book and we leave these in the bag for the next child to read.
So many thanks to those who have given us money to buy books. It’s making a difference.
Graeme CEF Manager Australia
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