Behind the Scenes of the Book Buddies Project

For some time Julie has been visiting the isolated north-western community of Weilmoringle. She is now friends with Josie, who is one of the elders there. Josie has a vision for her community, which involves improved relationships and more education for community members. 

Josie in a familiar role,surrounded by kids.

Their discussions led to a realisation of the lack of availability of books in the village. (The closest book shop is Dubbo, 4-5 hours away) Books in homes lead to reading and familiarity with books. This all helps with building relationships at home as adults and children enjoy doing something together, and with pre-literacy, as part of getting ready for school.

This led to the idea of a joint project between the Uniting Church Rural Chaplaincy and a larger city institution,church or school, which could partner Weilmoringle and provide books to the children in the village several times a year.

Mosman Preparatory School for Boys in Sydney heard of the project and was keen to get involved.They saw opportunities to make a difference in Weilmoringle and to benefit the students at their own school as well.

Meredith with her library class at Mosman Prep.

Mosman Prep donated money to supply the books and will continue to do this 3-4 times each year to keep up a constant supply of books to the community. In addition, they funded the school librarian, Meredith Ryals, to visit for 3 days, which she did, giving up her holiday time to do so.

Meredith of Mosman

And so it was that  Meredith of Mosman, found herself in Weilmoringle in December last year at the first Book Buddies launch, * accompanied by Sue and Julie, who introduced her to the school and the community. She looks forward to many more such visits and realises that her students will benefit just a much as the Weil. kids from the association. 

                                              Thank you, Mosman Prep for your generosity.    

  

* See December 20th, 2012 blog - Book Buddies in Weilmoringle, Apologies to Banjo Patterson.