Under the theme “Empowering the Nation through Literacy” the Rotary Club of Georgetown, in collaboration with the National Library, on Wednesday, January 23, 2019, launched a “Bookmobile” to service communities with little access to reading materials.
Minister of Education Nicolette Henry, who officially commissioned the “Bookmobile” said that the vehicle was important in many ways since it would give access and equity in the delivery of service to citizens.

“We live in a society where the further you get from Georgetown, the greater the disparities and I have spent an inordinate amount of time over the past three years closing the gap in the disparity in services, particularly in both quality of, and access to, education,” Minister Henry said.

In bringing services to the people, the minister said the bookmobile was aligned with the vision of President David Granger and the government.

The minister noted that President Granger had stated that education was the single vehicle that would take the nation from poverty to prosperity. As such, the minister said she looked forward to a continued partnership with the Rotary Club of Georgetown since it was the Education Ministry’s aim to eliminate illiteracy.

President of the Rotary Club of Georgetown, Ralph Persaud, said the bookmobile project started almost three years ago by past president, Liz Cox, when he was her secretary. The project was being commissioned as Rotary observed its 60th anniversary.
“We are indeed proud to be Guyana’s oldest serving rotary club with over 80 active members, but we are very passionate about improving the lives of our people,” he said.
Explaining that the project was done in two phases, Persaud said the first phase included a raffle to garner funds and hundreds of hours were expended selling raffle tickets. The vehicle was subsequently purchased.

The second phase, he said, started two years ago and resulted in over 3,000 book titles being made available on the bookmobile.

Adding that the bookmobile was outfitted with GPS tracking, Persaud said the plan was to visit 12 locations each month with allowances for additional visits based upon requests.
“This new bookmobile is expected to have a mobile hotspot. We will be offering Wifi and there will be four onboard state-of-the-art computers which will allow students to access information and do research. They will also be able to print materials that they need to use,” the Georgetown Rotary Club President noted.

Noting that the focus will be on three major groups — nursery, primary and neighbourhoods — that are without a library, Persaud added that over 775 million people over the age of 15 were illiterate and that was 17 per cent of the adult population.
Persaud further explained that the goal of Rotary international, and by extension, rotary clubs, was to strengthen the capacities of communities by supporting basic education and literacy. “That is one of the six areas of focus of Rotary International and this project will no doubt help in that area,” added Persaud.

Persaud said that the Rotary Club will focus on areas outside of Georgetown which were not served or were underserved with library services.

Underscoring that Rotary intends to have more projects and collaboration with the National Library, he said there will be a bookmobile committee which will constantly evaluate the needs and benefits of the communities as a part of Rotary International requirements for projects to be sustainable.

He said corporate Guyana will assist in donations to ensure that the Bookmobile project continues.

Rotary District Governor, Dominique Venere, said that in all the countries she visited, many people were illiterate and access to learning to read was an essential part of human development and the project was commendable.