Into Africa

When Beverly Bauer stumbled upon a volunteer summer program on her state's library listserv last year, she knew she'd discovered her next calling. The monthlong project, offered by the North Carolina–based World Library Partnership (WLP), wasn't your run-of-the-mill library initiative: its goal was to train rural South African teachers so that they could launch their own school libraries. It was exactly the challenge that Bauer, a recent cancer survivor, was looking for.

Within six months, the 57-year-old retired media specialist from Minnesota was on a flight to Johannesburg, where she was joined by 32 other volunteer librarians and library school students from around the world. The group traveled by van for seven hours on winding dirt roads, stopping in villages along the way to drop off some of the new recruits. When Bauer finally reached Phalaubeni in the northern province of Limpopo, she was overcome with culture shock. Her new home was made of dried brick and cow dung, and there was no indoor plumbing. Luckily, Bauer had remembered to bring toilet paper for the outhouse—a raised hole in the ground with a toilet seat.

Bauer and her teaching partner, New York City–based school librarian Elizabeth O'Brian, went straight to work, traveling a mile each day to Mabunda Elementary School to explain the unfamiliar concept of libraries and train teachers in such basics as checking out books and the Dewey decimal system.

Last month, a new batch of 30 volunteers returned to the same 15 elementary and middle schools in Limpopo and eastern KwaZulu Natal provinces. But this time, they concentrated on teaching information-literacy skills, linking library collections to the curriculum, and collaborating with teachers, administrators, and other schools, says Laura Wendell, the founder of the World Library Partnership. Unemployment in rural South Africa is a staggering 80 percent and literacy rates hover below 30 percent. And because there are so few libraries in South Africa (only about one for every 25,000 people), the program also focuses on setting up Youth Library Leadership Committees to train students on the fundamentals of running a library.

"Since many people have never been to a library, I wanted them to know that a library isn't just a collection of books inside four walls," Wendell explains. "It's a person who's excited about reading and who can help people connect with information."

After finishing her duty in the Peace Corp in the West African nation of Togo in 1993, connecting poor communities through libraries became Wendell's dream. Since its founding in 1996, World Library Partnership has sent 135 volunteers to create 45 libraries in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Honduras. But a shoestring budget of $170,000—mainly from donations and a few grants secured by the four-person staff—has forced the tiny organization to concentrate solely on South Africa. As of August 2003, the agency had provided about 38 rural libraries in Zimbabwe and South Africa with $35,000 in books and materials—all of which were selected by the newly trained librarians. The South African Department of Education has chipped in more than $5,000 for books and transportation for the volunteers.

It's still too early to evaluate the success of the program, but there are clear signs that it's already working. One of the most significant is an increase in the number of students who have graduated to the next grade. At the Mntanenkosi High School in KwaZulu Natal, the pass rate jumped from 10 percent to 51 percent in the two years since the school library's opening, and other schools have reported similar results.

Thomas Stream, a media specialist from Grand Haven, MI, who took his wife on the 2003 South Africa trip, says he knew his work was making a difference when a fourth-grade class at Holy Rosary Elementary School in Limpopo literally ran a quarter mile to the school library in a separate parish building when it was their turn to check out books. Stream recently learned that the library was moved onto the school grounds.

Stream, who introduced read-alouds and the "Drop Everything and Read" campaign, says teacher-librarians at Holy Rosary carry on the tradition. And Wendell says the number of students joining Youth Library Leadership Committees is on the rise, and many have petitioned for longer school library hours. Based on observation, library teachers are also reporting more visitors and higher circulation of materials.

Independence and sustainability lie at the heart of the program, and the newly minted library teachers are encouraged to plan their own lessons and choose their own books. A handful of school libraries have started their own newsletters, bringing articles about books, health, and other subjects to students and the community. The hard work has paid off—principals at two schools, including Justice Nxumalo High School in KwaZulu Natal, have already approved library budgets.

All of this has led to more support by administrators, and, in some cases, principals are giving teachers free periods to work in the library. "We're teaching them about the importance of these figures for proving that libraries really need and deserve a budget," Wendell says.

If you're interested, it's not too late to sign up for next summer. The focus will be on fund-raising and outreach.