Recently in FAVL Category

KOURA Donkoui was recently in Ghana to see how the summer reading camps were going in Sumbrungu, Sherigu and Kunkua. He writes:

Au nord du Ghana, les élèves de ces localités ci dessus citées ne sont pas en reste des activités de vacances organisés par FAVL. Qui nie l'importance de la lecture dans toute éducation ? La réponse est non ! Ils sont tenus par les enseignants très expérimentés qui ne savent pas perdre du temps. De la lecture aux jeux en passant par le dessin, les enfants aiment bien ce qu'ils appellent « reading camp ». Tout cela a été rendu possible par les sponsors de FAVL et toutes les communautés des trois bibliothèques. Chers donateurs, vos efforts sont appréciés à travers le monde. N'hésitez pas un instant à penser a ces milliers d'enfants qui ont soif d'apprendre.
A Sherigu : Une attention particulière pour les enfants !
Les enseignants de Sherigu sont particulièrement attentifs aux préoccupations des enfants. Ils prennent le temps après la lecture individuelle pour comprendre si les enfants ont compris, suivi d'explication des mots difficiles. Quelle belle initiative ! Tous les enfants n'apprennent pas a la même vitesse ni de la même manière. Vous pouvez voir certains enfants coucher sur des nattes. Par contre d'autre sur des chaises, banc...très bon travail !
Kunkua : Les stratégies de la compréhension
Beaucoup d'enfants lisent sans une attention particulière. Pour le faire, les enseignants leur donnent des rudiments sur les stratégies de compréhension du conte. Ils consistent à faire un schéma mettant au centre le personnage principal et en énumérant les principales actions par les verbes sentir, faire, dire, agir etc. Cela résume le conte en quelques minutes. Apres la lecture de chaque livre, les enfants sont invites a présenter le conte ou l'histoire sous ce schéma. Quelle culture de l'attention !

Camp feedback and photos from Kristin, a volunteer who helped at the FAVL reading camp in Dimikuy:

"Overall I think the camp went great. The FAVL staff was incredible and very helpful and worked fantastically with the kids. I really appreciated the organization and structure and I think the kids also really enjoyed the activities.
My suggestion would be to maybe prepare the facilitators a bit more for the health sessions because some of the information they distributed was a little misleading or lacking. Also for the group that we had (low level) both of the books were far to difficult for the kids. These students were still learning there alphabet and syllables. They also didn't understand french all that well so the topics just went over their heads.
I also think it would be beneficial to promote working in small groups because most of the time the facilitators wanted to work as a large group and quite a few students got lost in the mix.
But as i said overall i thought it was extremely successful and would definitely recommend having PC volunteers work these camps in the future.
Also, If it is at all possible i really believe that volunteers would enjoy/benefit from being able to purchase the books the student from Santa Clara make. I'm not sure if this is feasible but if you could look into it i think it would be a great way to fundraiser and promote volunteers doing literacy camps in their own villages.
Thanks for letting me be a part of this great camp!
Kristin"

While in Québec, I was able to attend the wedding of one of my close friends from college. The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun. Christine and Doug, the bride and groom, have always been incredibly kind and generous and have donated quite a bit to FAVL. A wedding is the perfect opportunity to be spoiled and receive all kinds of gifts. Though, when I arrived to the reception the first thing  I saw was a large table with FAVL posters and individual cards describing FAVL, the work it does, and asked guests for donations. Later Christine told me that she and Doug would be sending FAVL a check with the donations received. To me, this action only exemplifies the newlyweds' generosity. To Christine and Doug, CONGRATULATIONS and thank you so much for all your support!

 










A few of the old Lady Gaiters basketball team (Christine in white); the FAVL table at the wedding; Christine and Doug

This afternoon the FAVL office received a visit from Peace Corps Response Director Sarah Morgenthau, who is visiting Burkina from Washington DC. Elisée explained FAVL's work and goals in rural communities and shared with her the latest RWA photobooks. As a thank you for Peace Corps' partnership with FAVL, Elisée presented her with one of Kathy Knowles children's books.

Last Saturday FAVL staff and all the librarians got together for a meeting about the upcoming summer reading camps. The meeting focused primarily on:
    - Camp organization. This year marks the first time that several libraries will run   reading camps: Béléhédé, Bougounam, Niankorodougou and Pobé-Mengao. The librarians were able to discuss and share how to prepare and what to expect for the camps.
    - We received a grant to buy 50 African children's books on HIV/AIDS and maternal health to use and discuss with students at the camps. Jean Paul Ramdé of REV+, an association fighting against HIV/AIDS, was invited to speak to the librarians.

The videos below (in French) were made by Dounko and Elisée

Part  1


Part 2

After months of organization and planning, yesterday evening the entire FAVL Burkina staff breathed a huge sigh of relief: the mayors' forum was over and it was a success!

FAVL is working on slowly transitioning library management to rural council. The goal is for mayors' offices to take over librarians' salaries and general library maintenance. This is not something that can be done overnight and the forum was FAVL's first step into this transition.
The forum, which was held on June 25th in Houndé, brought together all the mayors of villages where FAVL libraries are located. During the first half, we discussed FAVL and its role and importance in each community. The second half focused on FAVL's current situation and shared possible strategies for a successful transition. We split up the mayors into small groups where they debated amongst themselves first and then we'd come together to discuss as a group.
 
Everyone was happy and impressed with how the workshop went. While some of the mayors may have arrived late, every library was represented by either the mayor himself or one of his representatives. They were lively, engaged and actively participated in the discussions. We were also grateful that they took the issue both seriously and realistically. They didn't just say "Oh yes, yes no problem" or "No, no, no. There's no money." We discussed the issues, the realities, the challenges and addressed possible solutions.
All the mayors agreed that while it will take time, this transition is important and necessary. They decided that 2 ½ to 3 years is a realistic time for the transition to succeed.
 
We're hoping to hold another meeting with the mayors next year in 2012. In the meantime the mayors said that they will:
-    Discuss with the rest of rural council on what took place at the forum
-    Work on incorporating part of the librarian salary into next year's budget
-    Write grants and ask for financial help from their partners
-    Work to increase library membership (they said that all students should be members)
-    Meet with other village councils (ex. APE, the local school parents' group) to discuss possible solutions
-    2 mayors vowed that even if they could not get part of the librarians' salary into the 2012 budget, they would make a contribution to their library.

Bonsoir a tous,
Je m'en vais ce soir au Danemark pour participer a la conférence international de NEXT Library a Aarhus entre le 19 et le 21 juin. Je suis en effet invité à présenter quelque chose avec quatre autres récipiendaires de la bourse sur le thème "Building Community." Je vais parler du travail de FAVL avec les communautés, durant tout le processus d'établissement et de fonctionnement d'une bibliothèque rurale; pour finir avec la perspective de l'implication des maires dans la gestion des bibliothèques.  
Je sens que ce serait une belle aventure. Je rencontrais beaucoup de professionnelle avec qui j'échangerai sur la question des bibliothèques. J'espère pouvoir revenir avec un carnet d'adresses qui certainement bénéficierait à nos bibliothèques.

Elisée


Good evening everyone,
I am leaving tonight for Denmark to participate in the International NEXT Library Conference in Aarhus from June 19th through June 21st. I have been invited to present along with four others grant recipients on the theme "Building Community." I'll talk about FAVL's work with communities throughout the process of establishment and operation of a rural library and ending with the prospect of the involvement of mayors in the management of the libraries.
I feel that this will be a great adventure. I will meet a lot of professionals with whom I can exchange and share library issues with. I hope to return with a list of contacts that will benefit our libraries.

Elisée

Voici un excellent rapport de KOURA Ivette et KOURA Zomizou, bibliothécaires à Béréba, qu'ils ont amené durant le moi de mai.


Les 19, 20, 24 et 27 mai nous avons fait les activités suivantes :
1)    -      Sensibilisation sur l'hygiène
        -    Discussion sur l'entretien des livres
        -    Dessin
        -    Jeux de domino et de puzzle
2)    Charades et Devinettes
3)    Formation des mots
4)    Lecture de bandes-dessinées avec 75 enfants

Les deux dernières activités on été animées avec les livres suivants :
-Livres de langage CE1 ; un livre qui est très riche en exercices pour mieux former les enfants en français.
- Kouka « La rançon de la corruption » une bande-dessinée adapter pour apprendre à lire les bandes dessinées aux enfants et connaitre ce qu'est la corruption et ses conséquences.

Quand aux deux premières activités, nous avons utilisé nos propres techniques à travers les questions/réponses pour faire connaitre aux enfants ce qu'est la propreté et comment les saletés peuvent nuire à l'homme. Exemple : les maladies telles que la diarrhée.
Montrer aux enfants que quand on est salle on ne peut pas bien entretenir un livre.
Faire connaitre aux enfants comment tourner les pages d'un livre ; comment l'entretenir même pendant les vacances.
 
Pour distraire les enfants nous avons fait les dessins, charades et devinettes.

La formation des mots a fait savoir aux enfants qu'un mot pouvait être formé a partir d'un autre mot en utilisant les syllabes.
 
La lecture de bande-dessinés a permit aux enfants de connaitre comment on lit la bande dessinée, connaitre ce que c'est que la corruption, qui est nuisible pour la réussite et qui est punie par notre pays.
 
Nous pensons que les voix et les moyens que nous avons utilisés pour animer ces séances ont été bons. Car 7 filles de l'école de Sibalo qui ont participées a une de séances le 19 mai pour la première fois ont trouvé qu'il est vraiment intéressant de venir a la bibliothèque.
 
KOURA Zomizou et KOURA Ivette