CITW - Judith’s Reading Room Award: Ziga Primary School

Very much delayed, but with much gratitude and excitement, Children in The Wilderness have finally been able to induct Ziga Primary School’s library as the 100th Judith’s Reading Room library! Due to school closures in Zimbabwe from March 2020 – March 2021 as a result of COVID-19, this much-anticipated unveiling had to wait until we were able to visit schools again.

Thanks to the award that Ziga Primary won last year through Judith’s Reading Room, we were able to purchase 113 early-reading books to add to the school library. The books were carefully chosen to suit the needs of the school and the students.

There are just over 150 students enrolled at Ziga, from ages 5 through 14. Due to the low literacy levels in southern African schools, the Oxford University Press South Africa New Way early-reading books provide an ideal platform from which to help students learn to read, and gain comprehension skills. They have various levels that students can work through as they improve, and all the books are locally relevant stories full of pictures and bright colours. These were combined with other early-reading books that come highly recommended for southern Africa, creating a wonderful new addition of resources for the school library.

The books made a long journey themselves, all the way from Durban in South Africa up to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. From Victoria Falls we then transported them a further 230 kilometres to Ziga, which is located south of Hwange National Park on the western boundary of Zimbabwe.

This distribution came as such a welcome surprise to the teachers and students at Ziga, who work incredibly hard and are so proud of their school.

We would like to say a huge thank you to Judith’s Reading Room for this wonderful gift that will continue to inspire children at Ziga for years to come.