Just about finished

We are now finished with all but one nursery school library (Kaberu) and a delayed opening of a library that we have already put on the shelves--Araa. Those should be done tomorrow.  That will bring our total to 22 libraries in the Zombo district, the Bethany Village library, 4 libraries for orphanages done in conjunction with Promise International, the Zeu Health Clinic library, the collection of books for the United Methodist Church's Bishop of East Africa and one additional secondary school which we have worked with local people to make out of the surplus books we shipped over.  BTW, those extra books are really helpful and have and will continue to make it possible to fill in holes and give some schools without libraries reading materials, until they can get a library.

I am also pleased that we are building capacity in the form of trained librarians who can help train others at all the schools and help encourage best practices.  We brought over books and other materials about library siciences and have worked with two gentlemen (Terrance and Deogratias) who are becoming experienced at setting up libraries, cataloging and so forth.  They are also looking forward to taking a one month University course on librarianship. It is hoped that these gentlemen can apply to other NGO's to acquire more books for the district as well as to receive the shipment that will contain the books remaining in the Chapelwood basment and those at the Christian Alliance warehouse. Ultimately, this kind of capacity building is key to there being a sustainable library network throughout the Zombo district.

We are also finishing up two related programs over the next two days--the Chapelwood Foundation solar lantern program and the de-worming program done in conjunction with our friends Dr. Todd and Sue Price. We will have distributed over 100 lanterns-mainly to schools, but also to several clinics that are allextremely excited at the prospect of light at night. Kind of amazing to think that at several of the clinics babies have been delivered in the dark  and emergency care must similarly be given by candlelight or in the dark.  Thanks to the Foundation's generosity that, and the students not being able to read at night, will be changing for the better.

Thanks again for everyone's help and prayers.

Mark