One of the things you’ll notice the most in Malawi is children…everywhere. About 47% of the population is under the age of 15. Malawi is the 13th poorest country in the world with an average literacy rate of just 63%. Politically stable and conflict-free the country became a multi-party democracy in 1995. Free primary education for all children was established by the government, which improved attendance rates but class sizes increased dramatically. Classes sometimes number 100 pupils. Books are seriously lacking. This year vinspired Lake of Stars has been proud to work with the Book Bus; a charity which addresses all of these issues. Both volunteers and artists, including the Noisettes and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly took a trip on the Lake of Stars visit to see what the Book Bus was getting up to during the festival.
What they do: The Book Bus believes that every child should have the opportunity to discover the hidden treasures that books contain. Their aim is to reveal the value of literacy by instilling a lifelong love of reading in young children. Using the spoken word, artwork, puppet-making and a host of other media, our volunteers bring to life the worlds within storybooks. The Book Bus provides a mobile service and actively promotes literacy to underprivileged communities in Malawi. There's no doubt that stories can make a difference to children's lives and with story tellers onboard, the Book Bus can help maintain the link between local society and its own stories as well as providing inspiration with new stories from afar. The bus is supported by a crew of enthusiastic volunteers, local teachers, story tellers, musicians and artists, all of whom were present on site providing activities.
We had a chat with Get Cape Wear Cape Fly to see what they thought about the day...
Why are you at the BookBus today?
We've come out to the bookbus today to see firsthand the work that the volunteers are doing with the project and what the response it gets from the local communities. It's absolutely blown us away how positive the whole experience has been. The kids from the village have all come down, voluntarily to pick up books, to read or to be read to. There seems to be a real spirit here that would be hard to find anywhere else.
What has been your favourite part?
Seeing how much the kids really want to learn to read and to know more about everything. It was amazing to see Andy (our drummer) reading with some kids on the bus. It was something as simple as a football annual and pointing out on a globe where the differant players are from. The children had a genuine interest and you could see the enjoyment in their faces . These kids want to learn and they want to better themselves whether it be from reading or from just meeting people and talking. It really was an event that brought alot of people from the village together and of course it was for such a positive thing for us too.
From your experiences today, how do you feel that vinspired Lake of Stars has helped increase awareness of the BookBus?
I think that the festival being where it is has really spread awareness about these kind of ongoing projects. The festival gives people the chance to really see the positive aspects of the charity/volunteer work that goes on. On a resort that I'm presuming holiday makers would normally hole up in for their stay, the festival has brought people here and encouraged them to go out and to see the village, meet the people and see how the little things we can do to help them can really really help to enhance the lives of others. It's definitely made us all think about how we approach our days. We've been thinking a lot about how positive and energetic the kids are here when by western standards, they seem to have very little. We want to try and continue to support these projects ourselves.
For More Info on The Book Bus please click here.
