"The best time of my life!"

Although back from Zambia, this is far from the end of the journey for all of us who went. The experience was unforgettable, and I am sure has made us all more empathetic, helped us to understand the extent of the poverty in Africa and provoked us to continue raising awareness of the dire situation, of the work of The Book Bus and of how everyone in our own society can make a difference, however small, in their own way.

It is difficult to express the true value of The Book Bus and its efforts. The children we worked with were so inspirational, full of hope despite what little they had. Many struggled to read, although were competent at speaking English, and it was a real challenge to help these children with literacy skills, but also to give them confidence that they have potential! Some children we worked with told us they only came to school when The Book Bus was present, as this was a highlight for them, almost definitely because we brought resources the school could not otherwise provide – paper, glitter, colouring pens and pencils, stickers, and of course, brightly coloured fact and fiction reading books. This could not demonstrate more clearly the importance of the work of this charity. After one session, a little boy told his fulltime teacher that it had been “the best time of his life” – if this isn’t a reward for all our time and hard work then I don’t know what is! Our sessions were focused around the book, more advanced groups using fact and fiction books both together, supporting a fictional story with information from a factual book. Once we had read through the book, which could sometimes take almost the whole hour, we embarked on an activity related to it. Normally a craft activity, this was equally valuable in teaching children to use scissors and glue and perfect for encouraging their creativity and imagination! Activities ranged from making glittery stars, pop-out penguins, stained glass window elephants, masks (monkeys, ‘wild things’, aliens etc.), puppets, diagrams of the human body, drawings of wild animals, hats, sparkly fish and 3D giraffes, to acting out the planets of the solar system and learning a number of new songs and dances.

The children all came from difficult circumstances – situations that are simply unimaginable in our own culture. One little boy told me of how he had been rejected by his father at birth, and his mother had died just a few years later. He now lives with his grandmother and siblings, but it is a struggle, and at only 11 years old, he has to miss school to help out at home. Although the work of a charity like The Book Bus cannot resolve this situation, it can certainly help. Volunteers can stimulate this child to become interested in reading, a skill that will undoubtedly help him find employment in the future, and brighten his day by engaging him in a fun game, song, craft activity or dance. Children like this need help, and we like to think that however small the impact we had, it was enough to give these children hope.

One of the aims of The Book Bus is to provide the schools with the means to continue providing the children with the chance to read from a range of books. As a result, when it came to leaving the school and orphanage that we had been working at, we, as representatives for The Book Bus, left a variety of books behind, with the hope that these can be used in lessons or even to create a library. The appreciation of this donation was clear on the faces of the teachers, and it was a wonderful feeling to think that even after we left, our contribution would continue to make a difference.

To donate directly to the Book Bus to help support the incredible work they do, please find details on how to donate on their website which can be found using the links on the homepage of this blog. Thank you!