My name is Peace Sergine, I am 23 years of age, I am the oldest of three children and I live with my parents in Dzaleka Refugee Camp.

My love for books and the curiosity to learn things led to me becoming a librarian. The library engages with children and I love working with kids. Helping them to read and write and seeing the smile on their faces as they seem to have a great time is the best thing about being a librarian. 

Peace at the library at Dzaleka Refugee camp

Education has been an eye opener to me, it has been helpful to me in many aspects of life like decision-making and problem-solving. I am able to make proper choices of what I can do and not do. If I had never had access to books, I would be miserable. 

The biggest challenge the children and families here at Dzaleka face is attaining a proper education. We have one government school which cannot accommodate every child as there are 52,000 plus refugees here and there are no private schools.

Families can’t afford to buy books, so the only way they can access them is at the library.  

Weekly we have 50 kids coming to the library. At times it gets overwhelming because we do not have enough space to accommodate all the kids. It is easy for them to come to the library, but currently the challenge is that the room we use as a library is also used for meetings, so sometimes it is inaccessible.  

Children enjoying donated books at the library

My hope is to help the kids have the best education.

The Malawi National Library Service has helped by donating books from Book Aid International. We have received many books that range from children’s foundation level to tertiary level and even novels. 

People find comfort in books, in learning things that they never knew and never learnt in school, they provide extra knowledge. There are things that you read and you are able to apply in your life. These books are life changing.

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Photos © BookAidInternational/TChikondi