Envoy gives books to kids

 American Ambassador Walter North presented 10 boxes of children’s reading books to the Buk bilong Pikinini Library in Port Moresby yesterday. 

The presentation was done on behalf of American Music Abroad (AMA) tour group and Grammy Award winning music duo, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, and as a result of a fundraising drive by them following their visit to PNG as music ambassadors last year. 

As part of the presentation and to commemorate “National Story Telling Week”, North and his wife had a reading session with the children at the American Corner at the National Library, NCD

North thanked Buk bilong Pikinini for its contribution of building up children at a young age.

The library’s executive officer Joanne Grenenger thanked the embassy for its gift.

“Without books there would not be any library and without library there would not be any books,” she said.

Buk bilong Pikinini was established in 2007. It aims to establish children’s libraries and foster a love of reading and learning. 

There are about 10 functioning libraries for Buk bilong Pikinini throughout PNG, with more than 100 children using the library each day. 

With only half of the school-age children attending to school and the literacy rate in PNG below 50%, the library was focused on building early childhood learning and as a key to literacy. 

It teaches phoenix, numeracy, literacy, virtues to children at the age of two and those who were out of formal education.