Book Smarts
We’ve all been touched by commercials from time to time, but for alumna Sarah Switzer, watching one became a catalyst for life change. She was only a child when she burst into tears watching a World Vision commercial. “Something inside me ‘booted up’ when I saw that ad,” she says, “and that feeling has never gone away.”
Fast forward to 2004, when Switzer, then 21 years old, received word from Canada World Youth (CWY) that she would soon be Africa-bound. “I was in shock when I got the email saying I was going to Tanzania. I never thought I would get to work in Africa at such a young age. It was a dream come true,” she says.
While in Tanzania, Switzer came face-to-face with illiteracy, a complex problem that is partially due to lack of education and access to books. “Many schools do not have enough textbooks for their students,” says Switzer, the result of which is low enrolment in the schools. And this low enrolment in the schools results in an uneducated and illiterate population, something that Switzer notes is a major problem in African communities. “Literacy empowers. Literacy breaks through ignorance. Ignorance causes many destructive, painful, and violent situations,” she explains.
“Literacy empowers. Literacy breaks through ignorance.”
With the help of Tanga Youth Development Association, a non-governmental organization that she connected with while in Tanzania, Switzer sought support for the construction of a library for the community in Kwekitui. African Community Technical Services, a volunteer-based Christian technical mission, agreed to endorse the project.
“The first library in Kwekitui was built next to a primary school and was filled with textbooks bought in Tanzania - the same ones that are used in the Tanzanian public school curriculum,” Switzer explains. She speaks enthusiastically about the success of the project. “Since the textbooks have been made available to all the students, graduation in the primary school has increased,” she notes.
With the Kwekitui library project completed, Switzer returned to twu to continue her studies. But Switzer’s passion for bringing literacy to Tanzanian communities continued to flourish, and she began to dream of another library. In July 2008, Switzer saw that dream become a reality when she returned with a team of seven other twu students to construct a second library.
And her efforts have been noticed. Switzer has recently been awarded one of two prestigious CWY Jacques Hebert Global Citizenship Awards for her work in Africa. The awards aim to honour individuals who have participated in a CWY program and who have initiated “innovative community projects that promote the principal traits of global citizenship: peace, tolerance, and intercultural understanding.”
When asked how she felt about being nominated, Switzer responds, “I was so deeply touched and encouraged.” She hopes that winning the award will bring greater awareness to the cause of the library projects. “I don’t work in this field so that people will believe in me, but that they would believe in the value of the work that I do and see that it needs to be done.”
by Laura Ralph
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