Mobile library heading from Ireland to Nigeria’s Imo State
The Owerri Catholic Archdiocese of Imo State in Nigeria is to run a mobile library project thanks to an enterprising Nigerian in Ireland – and the help of an Irish Catholic charity.
Dr Magnus Amajirionwu of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came up with the idea to help alleviate the scarcity of academic books in the region’s schools and colleges.
According to the EPA, Dr Amajirionwu saw a “great opportunity” to use a decommissioned air monitoring van as a mobile library in the region, provided the process was co-ordinated by an Irish-registered charity.
Dr Amajirionwu contacted the Wexford Council of the Knights of St Columbanus, on which he serves as secretary, as well as Archbishop Anthony Obinna of the Owerri Metropolitan See to make the necessary arrangements.
The EPA says both were “excited” about the project “and committed to its delivery, and ownership of the van was transferred to the Knights of St Columbanus in December 2011.”
With Irish Aid, Trocáire and the Knights of St Columbanus covering the costs of transport, the mobile library and its contents will be shipped on 23 August from Dublin Port to Lagos, from where it will be driven the 600 miles to Owerri in southeast Nigeria.
The books include more than 3,000 volumes of educational texts donated by staff from the EPA, St Peter’s College, Presentation Secon-dary School and CBS New Ross Secondary School.
The Readers’ Paradise Bookshop, family and friends of the Knights of St Columbanus and the Combat Poverty Mission Ireland also contributed books.
Reacting to the level of support the project has received so far, Dr Amajirionwu urged schools across the country to donate books to the project.
“Every year, at about the end of June, most of the schools in Ireland do a clean-out of used and unused books which are not required in the next academic year. Most of these books will be in very good, reusable condition.
“I have always agonised as to how these books could be re-used, especially in Africa where there is as much book poverty as there is food and economic poverty. This mobile library project is the ideal way to begin addressing this problem.”
