Schools

Wenonah Helps Set Up Library for African School

Gathered more than 1,200 books as part of African Library Project.

You can travel to all walks of Earth and find Sachem alums and former community residents. Now Sachem also has a connection in Swaziland, Africa thanks to a group of junior librarians at Wenonah Elementary School.

Six fifth graders, who act as junior library leaders during recess and before school, are the driving forced behind the African Library Project at their school.

A former Wenonah teacher, Mr. Ungar, contacted Wenonah library media specialist Erin Lounsbury to share that his friend, Nancy DeLucia, - also a former Wenonah teacher - is volunteering for the Peace Corps by teaching in Africa.

Find out what's happening in Sachemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Her school didn’t have any books or resources to teach with,” Lounsbury, a Sachem alum, said. “Books are so rare in parts of Africa, that the few they do have are under lock and key.”

She contacted the organization, African Library Project, and was trying to see if Wenonah could start a book drive to send books to schools in Africa.

Find out what's happening in Sachemwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“When Mr. Ungar asked me if I could help, I asked my library leaders if this was something that wanted to do,” Lounsbury said. “My students said yes and wanted to be proactive and make a change. They felt every child deserves the right to read books.”

Wenonah got involved with the organization in January and are partnered up with Mpolonjeni Primary School in Mbabane, Swaziland.  

First the leaders researched about Swaziland and its political and economic state.

“My students were in culture shock,” Lounsbury said. “Then they started to look through their books at home, my books and get donations from several teachers.”

They collected 371 books before they realized they needed to synergize or work together with the community to reach their goal.

Books poured in by the dozen each day. The students sorted the books, counted them and put them in boxes. As of last week, they have 1,200 books with more on the way. They surpassed their goal and will be able to start a library in an elementary school in rural Africa.

“This was such a wonderful service project to have the whole Sachem community including other elementary schools and parents come together,” Lounsbury said.

The students who ran the book drive are fifth graders: Peter Vacanti, Emma Flynn, Kristina Castellano, Brendan McGarry, Olivia Ciulla, Lexi Cavalieri and Tristan Spinelle.

To learn more about the African Library Project, click here.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here