Mzuni graduate introduces school library initiative

A Mzuzu University (Mzuni) graduate Gloria Matekenya has established Kuongola library initiative in some rural primary schools in Lilongwe District to reach children with library services and inculcate a reading culture in them.

Matekenya, who graduated from Mzuni in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Library and Information Science, said her passion for children and desire to extend library services made her open a book club in Katalima Village in the district.

She offers books for the learners to read and some refreshments to make  them interested.

Matekenya said she targeted children in rural areas because she once lived there when she was a child.

“Growing up in a small town with my parents, I liked spending time with my father because he loved reading books to me and telling me folktales,” she said.

Matekenya said reading is important for our education sector.

She also donated books at Nasala Primary School in Lilongwe Rural West, Likuni Zone.

“The first consignment was about 400 books, a donation from the National Library Service through the African Library Project which I work with,” said Matekenya.

Nasala Primary School deputy head teacher Moses Kalungu said it is not learners only that benefit from the donation, but teachers also get important information as the library is serving as a resource centre.

“The performance of learners has changed in a way that learners have developed a habit of reading which, in turn, helps them to read other books which are curriculum-based,” he said.

So far, Nasala, Mchedwa and Ngowe schools and Malingunde and Nkhotakota schools for the blind have benefited from the initiative.