Operationalising the Affiance Community Library

Dear Editor,
On behalf of the residents of the villages of Affiance, Taymouth Manor and Capoey on the Essequibo Coast, I wish to sincerely thank Mohammed Arafat Qualander, the owner of “Queensway Security” of Regent and Oronoque Streets, Georgetown, and Seearam Dabicharran (originally from Perseverance, Essequibo Coast) the owner of “Dabi’s Variety” of Lot 40 Robb Street, Georgetown, for their generous donation of over 200 school text books to the Affiance Community Library.
The library is one of the projects of the Affiance Community Cohesion Group, which consists of community volunteers working on social projects defined by the community. The concept of the library is to facilitate a storytelling programme, early borrowers, and text books borrowers for students pursuing online studies.
When the Government reopened schools, it was prior to the completion of the physical space to house the library. That triggered the volunteers to assess needs for textbooks that are required (which were not provided by the Ministry of Education) by students of the three communities, whose parents are experiencing a challenge to purchase the books. Having determined the needs, efforts were made to acquire the books.
The text books will belong to the library, and will be borrowed by the parents for the duration that they are required by the students. Thereafter, they will be returned and be made available to other batches of students.
Hope you will publish my letter in your newspaper as encouragement to other persons and donors to assist in community development projects.

Yours sincerely,
Lalita Saytoo
Community Youth
Programme