Developing a culture of reading

Last night, the Library campaign group and members of the Support Team met to discuss ways in which we could develop a culture of reading amongst Kinbu students. Like I mentioned earlier, it's all well and good renovating the library, but if the students do not use it our efforts would have been in vain.

We met in order to brainstorm both ways we could motivate students to go to the library (aside from the refurbishment) and also to make reading in general something of a habit. We came up with quite a few ideas, and now we need to pick one main area to focus our energies on. 'Minor' initiatives that will not require too much initial effort to start up can run alongside the main idea. It has to be something sustainable so it can run without Databank Foundation needing to be there at all times (or every time it needs to be run).

We'd like to open up the discussion to all the groups of the Programme. Here is a list of the ideas we came up with:

--> Termly quizzes/competitions based on set books. Internal (within Kinbu) and external (involving other schools) reading competitions
--> Book/library club - Members get exclusive benefits, i.e. watch movies, go on trips etc based on attendance to meetings
--> Notice board in library – announces local essay competitions, new books (reviews), etc. Students have to go into the library in order to check it
--> Have speakers periodically come and talk to students about the importance of reading (e.g. Ama Ata Aidoo). Can also show movies that demonstrate this (e.g. The Book Club, The Debaters)
--> Arrange books in order of difficulty. A ‘reading marathon’ could then be introduced. Students must finish one book before advancing to the next. Can create positive competitiveness
--> Library ‘scavenger hunt’ – event where students must hunt to find specific items in the library
--> Kinbu could join Readwide Club
--> Create a writers and debaters club
--> Organise drama productions based on specific books
--> Reading linked to grades, i.e. have an exam/section of an exam based on a book
--> The library could be emphasised at orientation – new SH1 students could be given a tour of library and encouraged to join the library club
--> Games competitions (e.g. scrabble) twice a term. First prize could be one term’s fees paid, second prize a scrabble game, third prize a citation… etc. There should be a reading based qualification system; the more students read, the more prizes they are eligible to apply for

Which do you think is the most practical, effective and sustainable idea? We'll be meeting up again this Monday (17th May) at Databank at 5pm, and we should reach a decision by then. In the meantime, especially if you're part of the Clean Up campaign or the Support Team (formerly the School Fair campaign), please leave comments with your suggestions. If you prefer, you could email me or Elinam instead.

Library Campaign: Budget update

We've received the amended budget, and although it has been whittled down considerably, it still stands rather high at GH¢32,000. It's quite a lot, but we hope we'll be able to meet (or at least come close to) the target. We have till the end of June to raise everything we can, so we'll just have to work as hard as we can until then.

With the budget now confirmed, the sponsorship letter is complete and will be given to all junior and senior mentors. If you have a particular person or organisation you'd like to approach and need a sponsorship letter, you can shoot me an email at either infoYLMP@gmail.com or odoley90@hotmail.com and I'll get one to you. Alternatively if you are a member of this blog, you can simply comment on this post. Please note that if you are not affiliated with the YLMP or Databank, your request will have to be reviewed and approved by the Programme Manager before a letter can be sent.

We're also trying to get the mentees involved in raising funds so they feel like they are a part of the project. 'Support cards' have been created and will be distributed to them this Friday at the mini seminar. They contain a few details about the Programme and what it is we're hoping to get done. Although we're not expecting to raise a significant amount from this, we hope that the mentees will be able to get involved and feel a sense of pride in playing an integral role and making a practical contribution towards project.

In the meantime, we also have to think about projects we can start in order to create a culture of reading among Kinbu students. It's all very well and good refurbishing the library, but if students are not in the habit of reading our efforts will have been in vain. Once again if you have any ideas, just let me know and I'll pass the information on.

Update: Library campaign

-- Breaking news -- The budget is in people! At the moment it stands at a hefty sum of GH¢50,567. (!!!)

So. We're going to have to up our fund raising game by several notches. The figure isn't fixed as of yet - there will be a meeting with Mr Tetteh this Friday to verify a few items. We should be able to significantly reduce the final amount by receiving in-kind donations (furniture, tiles etc). Either way though, there is a lot of money to be raised.

The sponsorship letter is now good to go, and has been emailed to all members of the Support Group (formerly the Fundraising Campaign). Should you feel you would like to approach companies or individuals you know personally, you can let me know and I'll send you a copy of the sponsorship letter. Alternatively, you can leave a comment with the name of the company, and this will be communicated to a member of the Support Group.

--Update-->
After having consulted with Mr Tetteh's company, we have agreed on a revised sum of GH¢32,010. It's a bit more manageable, but we're still going to have to pull out all the stops in terms of fundraising!

Update: Library campaign

The library team went with a professional architect, Mr Senyo Tetteh (who has very generously offered his services free of charge), in order to get a recommendation as to what exactly needs to be changed, and an approximation as to how much this would cost. Previously we were thinking furniture, new nets on the windows, and tentatively, an air conditioner. Mr Tetteh proved to be very ambitious, and recommended we do the whole works; including replacing the ceiling and floor! We got right behind him on this - the more we're able to do for the library, the more likely it is that students are going to want to use it.

This means we’re going to have to start some serious fundraising! We're waiting for an approximation of the final cost, but it's sure to be quite a lot. After meeting with the Fundraising Campaign group to review our options, we decided that we would be much better off sending sponsorship forms to various companies than we would be having a school fair. Do you have any thoughts or ideas on this issue?

All at the YLMP would like to say a big thank you to Mr Tetteh for all his help and advice on this project.

--Update-->
The budget is in, and at GH¢32,010*, we do have a lot of fundraising to do. Click here for the current post on the budget.

*The original amount was GH¢50,567, but this has now been reduced.

Student Perspectives – Kinbu Library

A form two student, Elizabeth felt that the library was not an interesting place to be because the books were outmoded, and also not relevant for the courses they studied. She felt that if there were some new and interesting books in the library more students would be encouraged to read. She added that she sometimes spent her break periods in the library. She did mention that the library period had been taken from their time table this term.

Julien Kofie, a second year high school student said he never visited the library because he’d heard the library did not have the economics and geography textbooks he needed. He rather frequented the Ghana Library to study and conduct his research. He mentioned that he would visit the library often if the textbooks he needed was provided.

SHS3 Home Economics student Kafui admitted that she does not use the school library because the books are archaic. She stated that they do not have a library period any more. The last library period they had was when she was in SHS2. She says she would like to see books that are more relevant to her course in the library.

Written by Abena, David and Elinam.

Library campaign visit Kinbu

OK, formalities over. Now it's time to get to the real meat of the blog - and update you on what the 'campaign groups' have been doing. On Thursday the 18th of February, a few senior mentors went to visit the Kinbu Library to get an idea of what needs to be done.

The English teacher Mr Alfred Vaeta kindly took us round. Many mentors made comments about the fact that the library seemed to be in better shape than they had first thought it would be, but there was still a lot that needs addressing.

The first thing we noticed after walking in (after our eyes adjusted to the dim lighting) was that there was a lot of dust around. Despite the fact that the library is dusted every morning, there was dust everywhere. There are no nets on the windows, only rather flimsy looking curtains - an obvious cause. The windows cannot be shut to keep dust out as hardly any of the fans work, and it would get unbearably hot.

Walking around, a few intriguing items caught our attention. Clearly, the school’s storage had spilled into the library, but even that did not explain the presence of some rather fascinating items which included (of all things) a car engine. There were boxes of assorted rubbish, a couple of old speakers, piles of brooms and other cleaning equipment… many things that should have no permanent place in a library. Interestingly we noticed a library store, but this was full of – yes you guessed it – more junk.


There don’t seem to be any plans for these things in the immediate future. Of the several donated books that 'cannot be used by Kinbu students', Mr Vaeta seemed to allude to the fact that they would be thrown away! After calling him on this, he briefly mentioned they could be donated, but many mentors were unconvinced of this.

After talking to the students, it became obvious that many changes need to be made, and fast! You can read a brief selection of their thoughts here.