High School Student Builds School Library in Sierra Leone

Business

Eighteen-year-old Mankaprr Conteh has turned her school project into an international cause. She’s helped build a library at the school her father attended as a child in Magburaka, a rural area in Sierra Leone’s Northern Provence where school libraries are extremely rare. “My whole school district has put an emphasis on reading, and because of these reasons I have been a pretty successful student,” says the senior at Appoquinimink High School in Middletown, DE. “So I want to build an open space for students to study, and encourage in them a love of reading, which can create good comprehension skills.” Christine Payne, Conteh’s school librarian, was not surprised to see her plan go viral. “This project goes well beyond the scope of most senior projects,” says Payne. “But she always knew she was going to do it… and that’s great.” Conteh began planning the project in May 2011. Excited by the idea, Payne shared it with school librarians throughout the district and helped Conteh craft a short video, which the student presented in person to students, teachers, and even her local school board. To date, Conteh has raised about $7,000, she says, with most coming from T-shirt and bake sales and donations. The bulk of the money has gone to constructing a 30-foot-by-30-foot room, as well to building shelves, tables, chairs, and even a generator. The library is outfitted to serve K-7 students at the Sierra Leone Muslim Brotherhood Primary School. In January, Conteh shipped 18 boxes of books culled from fundraisers and book drives from as far away as Chicago—and more books are on the way. She’s also sent a desktop computer and two laptops, and is hoping to recruit nearby high school students to work as the school’s librarians. With both parents originally from Sierra Leone, Conteh has a strong personal connection to the West African country. Many of her extended family live in the area, including an aunt in Freetown. Conteh will be traveling to Magburaka in mid-April to help shelve books in the new space, and to meet with teachers to discuss what’s next. “I felt this responsibility to Africa because of my family,” she explains. “I plan to sustain the project through college. And if the people where I go to college react the way people at my school reacted, I think we can continue to make a difference.”

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