African Partners Summit:  Inspiring!

The third ALP African Partners Summit, held November 1-3 in Swaziland, was a huge success! For the first two days, 40 leaders from our partner teams in Malawi, Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho and Ghana joined the USA team of volunteers for library visits, learning from each other, and planning.  On the third day, 100 teacher-librarians from across Swaziland participated in workshops to improve their ALP libraries, and great ideas flew: 

“Here’s how to make the library an inviting place for students…This is how we get the community more involved…Let’s integrate library books into the classroom….Every class needs to have Library Time built into the schedule.”

The Summit celebrations included a street parade with a marching band and performances by traditional dance teams, student choirs, and poetry readings. Swazi government Ministers and the Deputy US Ambassador to Swaziland gave inspiring talks, and ALP Founder Chris Bradshaw and US teen Adanya Lustig told stories about the fabulous dedication of US book drive organizers.

The African participants were thrilled.  “Thank you for the books and this opportunity to learn how to make our libraries better!”

December, 2011