Ph.D. Candidate Allison Harnish from the Department of Anthropology, in collaboration with the International Book Project (a local non-profit), recently oversaw a shipment of over 6,000 pounds of books to schools in rural Zambia. Harnish, who traveled to Zambia in 2007, 2008, and 2010-2011 to carry out research for her doctoral dissertation, befriended teachers in the two communities where she was living and working. The teachers lamented to her that they were suffering from a shortage of supplies.

Over the years, Harnish has helped to bring Nkandanzovu Upper Basic School and Habulungu Middle Basic School into a relationship with the International Book Project (IBP), which is headquartered here in Lexington, Kentucky. From 2007 to 2009, Harnish volunteered with the IBP’s Books as Bridges program, which partners Central Kentucky classrooms with classrooms in developing countries. Working with fifth grade teacher Rebecca Reynolds and fellow volunteers, Harnish helped establish a pen-pal initiative between Julius Marks Elementary School and Nkandanzovu Upper Basic. In addition to mailing notes and artwork with their friends abroad, students in Mrs. Reynolds class wrote persuasive letters to local office supply retailers seeking donations of school supplies and secured $1,200 to send seven boxes of donated supplies to Nkandanzovu. This first shipment arrived in the summer of 2009. Mrs. Reynolds would later credit the Books as Bridges program for the improvement in her students writing test scores.

During her latest trip to Zambia, Harnish helped the head teachers at Habulungu Middle Basic and Nkandanzovu Upper Basic file an application for textbooks. The IBP approved each of the schools’ requests and, with the backing of generous donors, packed four large palates (between 6,000 and 7,000 pounds) of science, math, and reading textbooks, storybooks, and educational cassette tapes onto a shipping container in April, 2012. By August, the books had arrived and the parents and teachers of Habulungu and Nkandanzovu mobilized to rent a large flatbed truck, pick up the palates at the holding center 450 miles away, and bring them safely home. Harnish would like to thank retired school nurse Claudia Isenhour, fifth grade teacher Rebecca Reynolds, Assistant Principal & Reading/Curriculum Specialist Regina Dawson and Family Resource Coordinator Krista Mason from Julius Marks Elementary as well as AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer Whitney Zimmerman and the director of the IBP Tracy Taylor for all their hard work. For more information about the IBP, visit http://www.intlbookproject.org/