The children at Kham Lang Lower Secondary School now have a special place to read thanks to the partnership between YWAM Mercy and the Hanoi International Women’s Club (HIWC) which funded a new child-friendly library we developed at the school.
A child-friendly library is located in a room where students can easily access it and contains books that are interesting and attractive, which encourages children to read. As part of the library plan, reading corners are also set up in other locations at the school and an outdoor library was developed as well.
After six months working together, YWAM Mercy and the school staff finished all planned activities to set up the library such as renovating and decorating the library room, purchasing equipment and books, coding the books by subject, and training students, teachers and parents on the importance of reading, effective reading methods, and how to use the library.
On 21 November, the school organized an opening ceremony. Teachers, students and former students, local leaders, representatives from other schools, and YWAM Mercy staff, as well as HIWC representatives were in attendance at the event.
At the ceremony, many special contributions such as money, tables, equipment and books were given by parents, teachers, former students and some companies in the community. After the ceremony, all participants were invited to visit the library. The librarian shared more information about the library and the plan for its further development and maintainence. Many special library activities will now be part of the regular schedule for all students.
We hope that the new child-friendly library in Kham Lang Lower Secondary School will a model for other schools to follow. As we have seen with the more than 12 other libraries we have implemented in the past, we expect this library to contribute to the establishment and improvement of reading habits of children in this location.
We sincerely thank HIWC and its members for making this new library possible.
