Skip to main content
News | 27 January 2021
Share on social

Zimbabwe school kids receive book donation from Welly

Children at a primary school in Zimbabwe are enjoying stacks of pre-loved books, thanks in part to the team at Wellington City Libraries.

A primary school pupil from Zimbabwe, standing in greenery, holding a sign that thanks Council's Wellington City Libraries team for the books they sent to the school.

Wendy Jacobs, who works at Waitohi in Johnsonville, was approached early last year by a customer, who was looking to send withdrawn library books to her old primary school in Zimbabwe.

“We were in the planning stage when lockdown hit us so everything was put on hold,” Wendy says.

In August, the team picked up where they left off and arranged for five boxes of withdrawn items to be collected from the Johnsonville and Tawa libraries.

The books, which were included in a container with reading material from other sources, were sent 12,290 kilometres away to Gatsi Primary School in Honde Valley, Zimbabwe.

School children and teachers from Gatsi Primary School in Honde Valley, Zimbabwe, stand in front of the bright blue school room and go through boxes of books which were donated from Wellington.

Wendy says the North Cluster Libraries teams were “a great help” in finding children and young adult items to send over.