So when Carrie Witt, a U.S. Peace
Corp Volunteer from Chicago, arrived in Mashashane two years ago,
one of her priorities was to unite the community and bring the world to
Mashashane through books and magazines. In addition to enriching the community
through access to information, Witt hoped a community library might provide
a positive outlet for youths unable to find work.
The idea of the library was first conceived as a way to help bring teachers together. "Teachers here don't realize what they need to do," Witt said. "They realize the importance of education, but we had to somehow reach them, bring them together."
Witt went to the principal and asked
for support. Two younger members of the community took interest in the
library project, and the seeds for the Carrie Community library were planted.
In March of 2000, a 7 member library committee consisting of teachers and
young community members was formed. The committee sent out 25 letters to
teachers in the community, and contacted libraries in Pietersburg for help.
With time other community members expressed interest in the project, and
the committee decided to create a library to serve the community, not just
students and teachers. The library was named in honor of Witt who had become
an important part of the community after two years of service through the
Peace Corp.
Community members spent considerable
time in fixing up an old storage building a school had agreed to let them
use to house the library. The Pietersburg Regional Library donated several
boxes of books and encouraged the library volunteers to concentrate on
sustainability by showing how, not doing for. Despite the community's enthusiasm,
getting the library started was difficult because there was no way to secure
the building. Until they could ensure that the books would be safe, the
project stalled.
Enter the World Library Partnership
(WLP). When Maggie Hite, assistant
director of the WLP, and Witt had a chance meeting at the U.S. embassy
in Pretoria the wheels of progress began to slowly turn. After hearing
about the dilemma in Mashashane, Hite agreed to help. The prospect of professionally
trained American librarians coming to help and provide new books for the
library created the impetus needed to have the security measures installed.
Of the nine rural sites chosen as part of Inform the World 2000, Mashashane may have been one of the most unique situations. It was the only community library the WLP volunteers worked with and the only site with just one volunteer. Lynette Mitchell of Hernando, Florida was brave enough to tackle this project without any help from her fellow professional librarians.
"Even though I've had a lot of different experiences in my life, from being a nurse, to working in a prison, to being in the Naval Reserves and being called to active duty during Desert Storm, to going to college late in life, earning my teaching degree and getting my masters, I can truly say that this experience has been the most rewarding of my life."
"The people of Mashashane were absolutely wonderful," Mitchell said. "They were so eager to learn what I had to teach them. They taught me a lot too. In the evenings different villagers would come and sit with me, and we would sit and talk about our lives."
In addition to the children'sí books that had already been donated, the
Book
Certificate Program allowed the library to buy new materials chosen
by the library committee for the first time. Because the library will be
serving adults and children, the committee chose to spend their $500.00
voucher on mostly adult books and magazine subscriptions. Mitchell accompanied
two library volunteers to READ Organizational
Trust in Johannesburg, where she shared her expertise in development
collection with the inexperienced librarians.
"Lynn's coming has been a real catalyst
to get the library started," Witt said. "The community got really excited
about the library when they found out a professional librarian was coming.
We are bringing together some incredible skills with this project. I think
Lynn will be passing on so many skills, not just to the library, but to
the community."