August 2018

 

Solidifying our partnership with the University of Zambia

A fundamental objective of Lubuto’s work since our founding has been to build the capacity of African libraries to create opportunities for equitable education and poverty reduction by addressing the wide variety of needs of children and youth—who, for example, account for almost 70% of Zambia’s population. The University of Zambia (UNZA) offers both an undergraduate and graduate program in Library and Information Science but does not offer a course in children/youth librarianship, a fact that has underscored our direct partnership with UNZA over the years. We are excited to announce a major step forward in that partnership that will greatly benefit Zambia’s next generations!

UNZA Library officials have identified space in the University Library, adjacent to their own cataloging operation where we can catalog and process books for Lubuto library collections. This activity has been conducted in Washington, DC to date, but with Tukiya Mbewe now very capably heading our Zambia cataloging operation, we are ready to transfer that activity there. The plan is that this will also greatly benefit UNZA LIS students and faculty. UNZA interns will be able to gain hands-on, practical experience in cataloging, classification, acquisition and selection of excellent children’s and young adult literature—and collection development—through internships on their own campus. In addition, Lubuto staff will coordinate with the LIS faculty to teach these essential areas of children and youth services.

We are so excited to accelerate the development of library services to young people in Zambia through this mutually beneficial partnership, and are so grateful to our colleagues at the University for their cooperation and support.
 
 
 

Our new Country Director

We are happy to introduce our new Country Director, Humphrey Fumpa, who started work on August 1st. Humphrey came to Lubuto from Public Services International where he worked as the Subregional Secretary for Southern Africa in Johannesburg. Prior to that, he had worked for 13 years for the Civil Servants and Allied Workers of Zambia, including six years as their Director of Research and Information. A native of Zambia, Humphrey holds a BA in Public Administration and Economics from the University of Zambia and an MA in Globalization and Labour Policy from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. He is happy to be back home in Zambia and looks forward to using his knowledge and experience to help move Lubuto forward in the coming years.

 
 

Scholarship success

We are excited to announce that our goal has been reached for this year’s scholarship campaign! Thanks to the generosity of so many, all of the girls who received support last year will be able to continue in school this coming year, bringing them that much closer to graduation. This program began as part of our DREAMS grant, but even though the grant term ends soon, the Lubuto scholarship fund will continue as an annual, ongoing program. We are committed to empowering these girls—and other like them—to get the educations they need to open new doors for healthy and successful futures!
 

Volunteer of the Month: Julie Lessin

In 2009, Jane spoke at Julie's middle school, Sidwell Friends, and Julie never forgot her description of the street children that Lubuto Libraries were helping. Now in college, she has decided that she wants to become a science librarian and wrote in January to say that it would be an honor to be involved in Lubuto's work. To read more about Julie, go to https://www.lubuto.org/volunteer-news/julie-lessin.