African Library Project

Hey Everyone!!! I sent out this e-mail and thought I would paste it into my blog as well. The e-mail explains it, but I'm working with African Library Projects and am looking for a little help!
*Thank you so much for everyone who as already e-mailed me or contacted my mom. You are all amazing!

Annndddd I asked my mom to put some pictures up of two maps my friends and I painted in a high school in the south of the country. The pictures should be up in a day or two! I will try to write more in the next few days!!














Hello! I wanted to send an update as I approach the 1 year mark in my
Peace Corps Service! It feels like I left Penn State just a few weeks
ago. It is officially the rainy season in Lesotho, which means warm
weather and no more snow! I've been working for the past year as a
resource teacher for 4 primary schools in a very rural village in
Lesotho. I work with about 32 teachers to help them teach their
students in new and exciting ways. We also focus on their classroom
management, material development, and different teaching methods. The
students are taught mostly in English and all of their exams are
written in English. I have been helping the students as they learn to
read, write and speak English. Our biggest problem is there are no
books in my village!! I have applied to African Library Projects, a
non-profit based in New Orleans, to try and create a library in each
of the schools I work with.

I was very recently asked to join the African Library Project team,
which will be traveling around the country giving workshops on how to
set up and run the libraries that volunteers are working with schools
in their villages to develop. Through African Library Project
Lesotho, Peace Corps volunteers received 55,000 books for 54 new
libraries in this past year. We hope to exceed this accomplishment
next year. I currently have three library donation drives started at
home with the help of my mom, a family friend, and a group that
African Libraries has selected to help.

Most of the education volunteers in my group have also applied for
books through the program, however not everyone has a donor to work
with in the States yet; we still need to find 15 donors before
November! As a donor you would be collecting approximately 1,000
books and $500 for the cost(s) of shipping the books. If any of you
have some extra time and are interested in helping one of my friends
with their libraries, please email chris@africanlibraryproject.org
asap; she will give you more information and pair you up with a
volunteers school or community that you can help :) Here is the link
to the webpage if you want to learn more: www.africanlibraryproject.org

There are some really fun and creative ways to undergo this project
and we all would appreciate it so much-especially the children of
Lesotho, who in most cases have never even held a picture book before.
There is no pressure at all, and if you want to help, but are weary
of taking on so much responsibility you could give something as small
as a book or a dollar to my personal libraries (contact my Mom, Shari,
if you are interested 412-480-2191 or dissen1@comcast.net)!

I hope everything is going well! If you want to check out more about
my experience here or see some pictures, visit my blog! And please
feel free to e-mail this to anyone you thing might be interested in
helping!!

Thanks a lot!

Mike