Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Mabrook to Many Children at Al-Mizra Al-Sharqiyyeh

We happened to visit the Clyde L Campbell Seraj Library at Al-Mizra Al-Sharqiyyeh on the day they were giving mabrook (I think that means congratulations) to the crowd of young people who had completed and turned in their "Passports for Reading" and writing about books they had read. About 350 young people took a passport booklet and an amazing 170 returned them with books read and stories written. They weren't all present for the awards, but nearly 60 were - with prizes for the winners and acknowledgements for everyone.

The library at Al-Mizra is clearly the best equipped of our Seraj libraries - with shelving they made, tables, chairs, rugs, computers - but it is also a community which is using the space to the very best advantage. It's open from morning to night and is used by women, men, young people and young adults - for meetings, tutoring, research, reading, computer use, films, games. Al Mizra is a Muslim village, but, unlike some, boys and girls are not segregated here. They have very reason to be proud of what they are doing for their community.

One more thing, you can see and read more (if you're fluent in Arabic) about this library by going to the Al-Mizra Seraj Library Facebook page.









The Winner! 
Remembering Clyde Campbell, a great educator
Guidelines for use of the library!

1 comment:

aklynn said...

Your comments regarding formation vs discipleship or the vertical vs horizontal nature of our journey were new to me and helpful. The opportunity in the Holy Land seems to be the perfect intersection of the two. Incomplete without both. And in that land it becomes our connection to the foundational elements, the source of our faith heritage. Thanks Cotton.