Bring innovative libraries to 100,000 Africans

ALICE TAKES A LIBRARY CORNER TO A CORRECTIONAL FACILITY FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN

There are 88 prison establishments made up of 54 standard prisons, 34 smaller open-air satellite prisons, and one juvenile reformatory institution in Zambia. The Prisons Act of 1966, Section 56 makes special provisions for female prisoners with infants to be received into prison with the infants, and this places an obligation on the state to supply the infant with clothing and other necessities. ‘Circumstantial Children’ is a term that describes the female prisoners' children who come with their mothers into prison. They are not in conflict with the law but their mothers' circumstances place them in prison. To distinguish them from the children who fall in conflict with the law, the term circumstantial child is used to describe this group. A study conducted in 2010 (Simooya 2010) showed that about 6.8%of the females incarcerated were pregnant. 12% decided to bring their children with them in prison and this was because they were still breastfeeding and/or because they did not have anyone in their social network to take care of the child. In 2018, there was an average of 70 children in all of Zambia's correctional facilities.

The needs of these children include basic needs such as nutrition, education, recreation, and conducive accommodation as they sleep with their mothers in already congested cells or dormitories. Upon leaving the prison, the children (with their mothers) get back to the mainstream of society, but the children often end up living in compounds with their mothers, who in many cases are street vendors without any adequate care for them.

Alice, of the Zambia Library Service HQ Public Library, led a team to conduct an outreach literacy program at one of the prisons aimed at donating books to the inmates of the facility. On another visit to the prison, she enquired about the status of female inmates and requested to visit their facility. Seeing the circumstantial children made her sad and so she decided to act.

Since the time she enrolled in the INELI-SSAf program, her perspective on life changed especially towards rendering good service to the needy and underprivileged to improve their lives. After going through modules like Library Innovations, Community Partnerships, Change Management, and many others with a lot of guidance and support from the success stories of her fellow innovators and mentors, she found a new fulfilling meaning to life.

Alice and her team, all female librarians, initiated the idea of celebrating that year’s International Women’s Day and the establishment of library corners in all of Zambia’s correctional facilities for the betterment of the circumstantial children so that they could have reading materials. They engaged the Head of the Correctional Facility of the country to know how best to embark on and implement the project. The capacity of 7 members of staff and 10 inmates was then built, including project ownership, which contributed to the successful implementation of the project.

The Library corner at the facility is equipped with offline technologies that benefit all inmates and prison officers and there is now a place to access reading materials that support life-long learning and literacy skills for the circumstantial children. The ICT training conducted benefited 10 inmates and 7 prison officers who act as ToTs that eventually offer support to the rest of the women and their children at the facility. This initiative has opened the doors for the Zambia Library Service to work closely with the Prison Social Welfare Officer to know the needs to be satisfied and also created partnerships with other institutions that have already existing relations with the Correctional facility to ensure sustainability.

For security reasons, Alice was not permitted to take pictures of the Library Corner.

Alice proudly says that the “INELI SSAf program opened my eyes to possibilities of how libraries can better the lives of different sections of our communities. Going through the INELI-SSAf program has been an eye opener and I am a true testimony to what change is and what it can do”

Reading, a new Pastime for Pregnant Women

 Humanity is blessed with able librarians. Lawrence is a librarian in his City’s library which is situated at the heart of the city. He had been observing within the user community that pregnant women in the vicinity are given to sadness, depression, anger and aggression and this was having a negative effect on people around them at home, at the workplace and even in the library when they come to use the library facilities for themselves or when they bring their older children. These negative behavioral traits might have been caused by hormonal changes brought on by pregnancy, lifestyle changes and other uncomfortable conditions associated with pregnancy. It is known that the library is not a hospital and he had never noticed this challenge nor thought about how libraries could assist pregnant women.

When he attended the INELI SSAf program he was exposed to the modules on Innovation and My Library Making a Difference. He learnt from the program that innovative programmes are meant to solve real-life challenges within the community through the provision of targeted information services. Also, to give birth to an innovative programme, one needs to engage stakeholders within the community.

He reached out to a hospital in the community where women went for antenatal checks. The library got a time slot to talk to the women. The library also sought out celebrities within the community who agreed to use the time slot given to the library at the hospital to read stories to the pregnant women and share tips on their health status and how they could use reading to grow a mindset that did not focus on the discomfort and changes within their bodies but rather on possibilities.  The stories are carefully chosen to make them laugh while passing on knowledge that assures them that pregnancy is not a type of illness. Also the library sources for reading materials which are given to the pregnant women to take home to continue reading and bring them back on their next visit.

 The women are however given a choice on whether they wish to be a part of the activity or not. This gives them the freedom to choose.

 Up to 54(fifty-four) women have participated in the activity. They report that the sessions at the hospital and the books they take home lighten their moods and help to make pregnancy more bearable. They also report that the stories read to them have lessons on mood management and how to focus on positive things rather than letting everything irritate one or cause one to flare up. Nurses at the antenatal centre also report that they enjoy the sessions and gain information from the reading sessions on how to better assist pregnant women to cope with their moods.

Lawrence is elated about this program and says that “Personally, I feel fulfilled that I can link up with different stakeholders to run this programme. The INELI SSAf training has given me the strategies for recognizing the information needs of my user community as well as the confidence, boldness and ability to think critically outside the box in providing relevant information services to my diverse community. I will replicate this in another part of my community” Congratulations. Lawrence. Learning is useful when it is applied to solve challenges and he has done that.

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