Youth Day at Fountain of Hope
Our new Regional Director, Lieke Berghauser Pont, reflects on the recent Youth Day Celebrations at Fountain of Hope. On Wednesday March 12th, Youth Day was celebrated at the Lubuto Library at Fountain of Hope. I was asked to represent LLP and decided to bring my family along. When we arrived, we saw a large group of children walking cheerfully towards the library. At the entrance of the Library is a large flip chart sheets. Every child that enters the library writes his name in a column. Looking at the familiarity with which this was done, it was clear these children were frequent library visitors.
Inside the library, a group of thirty children were sitting in the talking circle listening attentively to Brenda reading, This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen to the children. A second group of around 25 teens came to the library to listen to the book Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman, which focuses on the importance of having goals in life.
After story time, we decided to stay in the library to listen and observe the children. Their eagerness to learn made a big impression on me. At one point, one of the children, who I think was about 6 years old, came to sit next to me. He had a book with him and wanted to read the book with me. The book treated the names of a large variety of amphibian species. The various names seemed to be difficult for the child to properly understand, but his eagerness and determination to learn to read in English language was impressive.
Later, two other children came to sit next to me. One of them could already read English well. He took over my role and helped the other child continue reading. Lubuto Libraries are clearly a place where youth can both learn from and teach each other.