Recently in Activities Category

Brianna Osentinsky writes:

The health literacy program is moving along well. Now in its fourth week, the basic literacy students have learned all the letters and their most common sounds, and are working to sound out new words and learn "sight words."
 
The students are interested in a variety of health topics, which we discussed in class during the first weeks. They are especially interested in basic children's health, including proper nutrition, sanitation, and keeping students healthy in schools. They are also interested in malaria treatment and prevention, clean and safe food practices, information about cholera and diarrhea, and how to learn about one's health status. We have now covered malaria prevention and treatment using text and illustrations, and the class is learning important words in health to be able to better navigate the available health resources. The malaria classes were particularly interesting as the classes engaged in discussions about why it is important to finish all the medicine prescribed by a doctor, and how to best locate and use bed nets to prevent malaria.

Many of the students speak no or minimal English. However, most written resources available, both in the libraries and at health centers, are in English. Thus, it is important for students to learn to understand English words too. This means they have double (or triple) duty to learn basic reading skills, health information, and also English. The students typically take a lot of initiative in learning English with the help of their family members or friends who can read or speak English, especially their children or grandchildren. CESRUD in Ghana is looking into grants for adult literacy, and we are trying to include funding to produce small picture books in Fra Fra (a local language in Ghana) to expand reading materials available in the local language.

The classes have between 10-20 students each. Most of the classes are women, with two or three men in each class. There is a wide range of ages, from young adults to elderly, but most are approximately between 30 and 45. The students' ability levels also run the gamut from completely illiterate to people who had some secondary education. Despite this wide range, the class is still able to function as a single unit. The students who came with reading skills practice reading the health text aloud and help to explain what they read to the rest of the class. This gives them fluency practice, and also works to expand their vocabulary. During the basic literacy portion of the classes they also help the other students, and also work on improving their writing and reading. In some cases, despite previous schooling, the students have not read or written anything in years (sometimes 30-40 years) so the review is very valuable.

The students who attend classes regularly are very committed to their education. The librarians have reported that they often come to the libraries to look at books, even those whose reading ability has them simply practicing identifying letters. They also check out books to read at home, and they report that they read them with their children or other family members who can read.

The students' dedication is paying off, with good progress in reading and in the health material. Within the next several weeks we intend to address more of the topics they are interested in, and increase the students confidence with basic reading through continued practice.

Watch the newest video featuring Monique and Dounko talking about their inspection tour of the three libraries in northern Burkina.

- Le samedi le 11 février: une séance de lecture en groupe avec les élèves de l'école « B » de la classe de CE2. Ils étaient au nombre de 60 élèves. J'ai formé 10 groupes de 5 élèves et chaque groupe a reçu un livre pour lire. Ensuite je suis passée dans chaque groupe pour voir s'il y a des mots difficiles et répondre aux questions. La séance s'est très bien terminée jusqu'à ce que les enfants aient demandé à revenir une prochaine fois.
- Le jeudi le 16 février: une séance de dessin avec les élèves de CM1 de l'école « A ». Ils étaient au nombre de 15. C'était dessin au choix. A la fin cinq d'entre eux ont eu des crayons de papier. Ils étaient satisfaits de participer à cette séance.
- Le 18 février 2012: l'activité menée est l'origami. C'est les élèves de CE1. Ils étaient au nombre de 9. Chacun d'entre eux a pu bien faire la tête du chien. Ils ont apprécié.


- Le mardi le 07 février: Lecture guidée avec les livres du programme RWA
- Le dimanche le 12 février: amélioration du vocabulaire pour les tout petits
- le dimanche le 12 février: sensibilisation sur le savon conte les microbes. L'objectif était d'apprendre aux enfants à se laver les mains et certains aliments au savon avant de manger. Ils étaient en nombre de 27 élèves du primaire. 

Here is Alidou BOUE's report of the happenings at the monthly meeting (which take place on the first Thursday of every month) in February of the 7 libraries in the Houndé area.

Le jeudi 02 février au siège de FAVL à Houndé s'est tenu la deuxieme rencontre mensuelle de l'année 2012.

L'ordre du jour s'articulait sur cinq points à savoir.

1. Recherche des partenaires
2. Compte-rendu de l'évaluation du mois de janvier 2012
3. Formation sur le crème anti-moustique
4. Présentation d'un conte
5. Divers

Recherche des partenaires
Prendre des initiatives pour approcher les personnes ressources des villages et leurs poser les problèmes de la bibliothèque.

Evaluation
L'ensemble des insuffisances constatées au cours des évaluations de janvier 2012, le coordinateur régional une fois de plus appelle les gérants au respect stricte du manuel du bibliothécaire.

Crème anti-moustique
Une expérience fait par le gérant de Boni, Monsieur Jonas GNOUMOU, par des feuilles de nime bouilli melangées au savon et au beurre du karité.

Présentation d'un conte
Le conte de Dounko SANOU sur la vielle femme sorcière dont la morale est ne pas réagir dans la colère.

Divers
Les divers ont été principalement basés sur la visite des volontaires et la française de RES Publica.

On Thursday, February 2, we held the second monthly meeting of 2012 at the FAVL office in Hounde.

The program of the day included the five points below.

1. Search for partners
2. Report of the January 2012 evaluations
3. Training on anti-mosquito cream
4. Presentation of a story
5. Miscellaneous

Search for Partners
Take initiatives to approach useful people in the village and explain the library's situation to them.

Evaluation
The observations and shortcomings noted during the January 2012 evaluations. The regional coordinator emphasized that the librarians needed to strictly respect the librarian manual in their work.

Anti-Mosquito Cream
A experience shared by Boni's librarian, Mr. Jonas GNOUMOU. The cream is made from Nime leaves, boiled and mixed with soap and shea butter.

Presentation of a story
The story of Dounko SANOU about an old sorcerer. The moral of the story is not to react to a situation in anger.

Miscellaneous
The miscellaneous principally concerned the upcoming visit of volunteers and a French woman from RES Publica.

From Lucas Aligire: These are more pictures about the foundation visitors. They presented some picture books to the children at the various libraries and asked the them to read the books to them. The books were written by Kathy Knowles in China and later translated to English. The foundation Co- chairperson addressed the kids in the libraries, she encouraged them to make the library their place of reading and entertainment. Both of them were so impressed with the children s ability in reading.

Last week, from Monday until Friday, Dounko, a mason from the village of Béréba and I attended a training about Hygiene, Sanitation and Latrine Construction. The training was located in the village of Baskouré, 25 km from the eastern regional capital of Koupéla. There were 12 volunteers present, each of whom brought 2 counterparts (at least one of whom had to be a mason). During the training, the faciliator discussed about the importance of handwashing, using a latrine properly and drinking clean water; the risks associated with unhygienic behaviors like not covering water containers or defecating in your courtyard; and how to build Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) and EcoSan latrines. The participants were not only trained on the information, but also trained on how to transmit the information to their communities.

At the end of the week, we got a pleasant surprise! Each counterpart received a canteen full of materials to help them build a good latrine (a square, iron thread, a tape measure). AND! Each volunteer is receiving 100 000 FCFA ($2,000) to buy the rest of the supplies necessary to build a latrine (concrete, sand, etc.). We decided that we're going to use the money and materials to build a new VIP latrine at the library in Béréba (the old one is in sad shape). We plan to use it as a model for the community for how a latrine should be properly maintained and used.

During the training, each group of 3 (volunteer and two counterparts) was asked to present a plan of action about how they are going to share the information with their communities upon their return. Peace Corps will make periodic visits to each of the 12 villages to assess the progress of our plans. Our team decided that our first priority will be training the librarians so that they will be able to hold regular activities about hygiene and latrine usage in the FAVL villages. You can check out the rest of our plans below in our official "Plan d'Action."

From FAVL volunteer Brianna Osetinsky:

At the beginning of February we officially began the book distribution with the visitors from the Chen Yet-Sen Foundation. Randomly selected students from the schools in the library communities would be receiving three books of their choice. After visiting the libraries, the visitors met with seven of the students, and inaugurated the program by giving them books of their choice.

On February 27 Lucas, Richard, Maxwell, Simon, and myself began traveling to schools to complete the book distribution for the rest of the students. Our car was laden with 10 boxes of books, with a mix of titles to give the students a wide range of choices. Most were African themed, like Kofi Has Malaria, The Cunning Tortoise, or Mumaizu and the Hippos, but we still had several titles with international themes, such as A Trip to the Theater, and a young readers edition of A Tale of Two Cities. In total we had 75 different titles for the students to chose from.

Before we began, we met with the Heads who were very enthusiastic about the book distribution. They helped us arrange a room to set up the books and worked with the teachers to alert the students. They thanked us for supporting their school by providing their students with resources to improve their reading.

The teachers were also helpful in gathering the students who were selected, and volunteering their classrooms. Some of the teachers asked for books themselves, but we encouraged them to make use of the libraries and explained that the books had to go to the children.

The students had been randomly selected the previous summer, and were in Primary 6 or Junior High School Form 1. They pulsed with nervous excitement as they filled out their questionnaire. Some were talkative and had to be reminded that the questionnaires we to be filled out individually, and others kept looking around at their friends and classmates who hung around the windows curiously. Still others worked with grave concentration, as if they believed they would not get the books if they wrote the wrong answers or took too long to complete the questions.

Once they finished the questionnaire, we allowed up to five students at a time to select their books. Some of the children rushed through in their excitement, still managing to pick out some of my favorite titles from the bunch. Others were more deliberate, and leafed through all of the books before carefully making their selections. As I recorded the student's selections we reminded them that the books were now their very own. They could share them with friends and family, but they should take good care of the books because they were theirs now. The students smiled proudly as they left holding their new books. Even though they probably should have returned to class, many of them sat outside the classrooms already engrossed in their new books.

My lack of posting has been do to the fact that I was at a latrine training in a village in eastern Burkina, but I'm back now and with lots of exciting FAVL Burkina reports, photos and videos!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Christine Allot-Bouty, from the French organization Res Publica, joined me on a tour of the libraries in the southwest. They currently have two libraries in small villages of Burkina. She was here on a site visit, and after having come across FAVL's website, was interested in seeing our work firsthand. In the course of two days, she visited the libraries in Boni, Béréba and Karaba. It was interesting having someone who also has experience with village libraries in Burkina visit and comment on those affiliated with FAVL. Christine really liked the libraries she saw and commented several times on how our strong suit was definitely activities and getting the community to participate and come to the library. She made several suggestions based on her experience, a lot of them organizational, (like chronologically ordering the cards from books that are checked out so that it's easier to see which books are late), ofwhich the librarians and Dounko took note. She commiserated over the almost-prohibitive price of African novels in French in Burkina. She would like some of the RWA photo books to put in her own libraries. During her visit to the FAVL office in Ouaga, she asked a lot about the reading camps, and Monique gave her a lot of information about them.

I received an email from Christine, which included several photos. Here's what she had to say:

J'ai aussi eu beaucoup de plaisir à rencontrer la jeunesse américaine et échanger avec vous.  Pour Favl, tu ne peux que transmettre aux responsables mon vif intérêt pour votre travail. J'ai apprécié l'installation et le projet de chaque bibliothèque. Nous avons de notre côté deux installations et je ne peux que regretter le manque de temps sur le terrain.  On voit que FAVL a un projet pensé et structuré.

[It was a pleasure for me also to meet and exchange with young Americans. As for FAVL, you can pass along to your superiors my interest in your work. I appreciated the installation and work of each library...You can tell that FAVL is a well-conceived and structured organization.]