The Library Construction

In August 2024, we completed construction of our purpose-built library on a site in Chipulukusu provided by the Zambian Ministry of Education.

The money to construct our library was all donated in Ireland, and amounted to just over €200,000.00. This budget, tightly controlled and sparingly used, was enough to deliver a high-quality 450 square-metre library building,  with high ceilings and plenty of natural light. The library is constructed of concrete blocks with a metal roof and a terrazzo floor. Everything is solid, well-built and hard-wearing.

Thanks to a grant from the Irish Embassy in Lusaka during the construction process, our library has been also been fully furnished with aluminium doors and windows, in keeping with the highest standards.

The construction process was managed on a daily basis jointly by our team in Ireland and our team in Zambia, through the use of Whatsapp. We had an excellent site manager, Mwewa Chilambe, and he managed a team of 12 builders, under the guidance of our wise foreman, Godfrey Ntala. They were a dream team.

The story of the construction of this library could  make a book in itself, but the achievement at the end is that we can now deliver a vast amount of books to a huge number of people in Chipulukusu and the general Ndola area, as well as having 140 seats in a well-stocked library.

It is important to acknowledge here again the generous donations of many people in Ireland, without whom this library could never have been built.

As of December 2024, our library has opened on a pilot basis, so that we can get our systems in place and ready for a full-scale opening in the new year.

Our current challenges include delays with the Ministry of Education in appointing the additional staff who are required to run the library and we are lobbying intensely now that the Ministry comes through on their obligations

Also, there is currently no public electricity supply available throughout Zambia due to the recent collapse of the country’s electricity generation system. As a result, we are now forced to look at the option of solar power so that we can turn on our lights, operate our computer lab and power a pump to supply water to the toilets. This is going to be an additional cost for which we had not budgeted.