Back in Ilorin: Books for Kwara
on Caroline in Nigeria (Nigeria), 10/Sep/2013 12:06, 34 days ago
The second week I flew to Ilorin. With the help of St David's church in Eastham I had raised£1100 for'Books for Kwara'. I was quite nervous travelling with so much money but all went well. Miranda and Stefan are VSO volunteers in Ilorin now and they had set up meetings in book shops for me. We bought most of the books from a shop that sold West African Publishers books. They are really great books full of stories relevant to Nigerian children and Miranda and Sheriff did a great job bargaining so we got a good deal.Tunji and Sheriff (SSIT) took us to the bookshop-called'Glorious Books'. We also got books from Macmillan.These are Macmillan'Storyworlds'also relevant to Nigerian children. We went to the plastics factory and bought 10 crates with lids. There are over 100 books in every box. I also put Jolly Phonics books donated by Chris Jolly in the boxes. Chris also donated Jolly Phonics pens which contain pictures of the actions for the sounds and these are going to be given to the teachers. Barclays bank also provided biros for the pupils and these are also in the boxes.Here you can see  the books and the biros.As soon as schools open next week the boxes of books and pens will be delivered. Tunji and Sheriff have chosen 10 schools to receive the boxes and will monitor the impact they have on the pupils'learning. I also gave letters written by Eastham Brownies to Tunde, the SSIT in Oro and he will deliver them to St James school in Oro. This school received a box when I was working in Ilorin ad were keen to hear from English children.Mission accomplished! Thank you so much everyone who made this possible!