Ambassador Hultgård of Sweden visits the Model Library
The new Swedish Ambassador to Zambia, Anna Maj Hultgård, visited the Lubuto Model Library on February 25th 2020. She met with Lubuto staff and toured the Library grounds with the Swedish Embassy’s Trade, Promotion and Communication Manager, Anna Dloski. They were able to see some of Lubuto's programming in action, including drama with Kenny, art with Enesto, storytime with Brendah, and the general use of the library by both in- and out-of-school children.
Tweeting about her visit to the Library, Ambassador Hultgård said, "Spent the afternoon at Lubuto Library, a wonderful oasis for the arts and a safe, creative place for children & youth from the #Garden communities. Worthy nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award." During her visit she also expressed her admiration of the library’s architecture and especially liked the reading room, saying it made her want to pick up a book and read for the afternoon.
Ambassador Hultgård's visit coincides with the 75th birthday year of Pippi Longstocking, long a favorite strong female character enjoyed by Lubuto Library readers along with the rest of the world. We look forward to celebrating Pippi's birthday with the Swedish community in Zambia, and are happy that our longstanding relationship with Sweden continues to flourish.
Lubuto receives an 11th nomination for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
We are once again humbled to be nominated for this prestigious award, which is designed to promote interest in children's and young adult literature, alongside some of the world's greatest living children's authors and illustrators. The ALMA was founded by the Swedish government in 2002 and is administrated by the Swedish Arts Council; they state that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is the foundation of their work. Lubuto is likewise inspired by the U.N.'s code of human rights for children, a focus of much of our library programming. The ALMA winner will be announced on March 31st, and you can view the full list of nominees here.
Welcome, Mumbi!
We are so happy to welcome Mumbi Mwelwa, the new Technical Services Librarian, to the Lubuto family! Before coming to Lubuto, Mumbi was the head librarian at two different Zambian universities and volunteered as a Peer Educator at a secondary school. She holds a degree in Library and Information Studies from the University of Botswana. Read more about Mumbi here.
Volunteer of the Month
This month we are celebrating Dr. Akakandelwa Akakandelwa from the UNZA Library and Information Science department as our Volunteer of the Month. Several years ago, Dr. Aka identified and defined Lubuto's major domains of impact on the children and youth of Zambia. Now a founding member of our Zambia Board, he is working with our public library colleagues in Zambia to support our work in bringing impactful public library services to Zambia's children. Most recently, Dr. Aka was a member of Lubuto's Templeton World Charity Foundation workshop team assisting with our Global Innovations for Character Development proposal. Thank you, Dr. Aka, for all of your important contributions!
