Category Archives: Little libraries

Patience and Timing: the ‘Promising Pages’ Concept is Ready to be Transformed

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For an impatient person with lots of goals still left to achieve, Namibia can be a frustrating place to live. Things tend to happen in their own sweet time and the only thing racing along, often, is my blood pressure…

Many years ago, the wonderful Namibian songstress, Patricia Ochurus, had a theatre full of us fans singing along as she sweetly informed us that sometimes it was important to ‘let it go…’ (long before the movie ‘Frozen’ was a thing), but it’s not a sentiment I embrace easily. Not even a tiny bit. Nevertheless, some of the ‘Good for Namibia’ objectives have had to be filed under ‘definitely dormant’ (the recycled-soap project hasn’t gained any traction yet) and others have largely hibernated and just opened a sleepy eye when I have poked them.

This year I decided that it was time to look at expanding the activities of the strictly informal PPPI (Promising Pages Pilot Initiative), which I run in my spare time; this would mean either getting myself cloned or taking on another willing, dynamic person with fresh ideas to grow the concept.

As of October 2026, the PPPI has distributed hundreds of boxes of items up and down the country. More than 20 sites in total have received donated books, study guides, textbooks, posters, magazines, shelving units and CDs/DVDs. How many actual books? I stopped counting in August last year, when we hit the 10,000-book milestone and I could say, with conviction, that we had ample proof to support the assertion than Namibians REALLY want access to books.

Our first physical installation – an upcycled shelving unit trialed at Physically Active Youth in Katutura in late 2025 – was not a great success – without the 24/7 security presence we had been promised, the wood soon proved too much of a temptation for a group of people camped out nearby (fair enough – our winters are punishingly cold) and it proved unrealistic to engage in ongoing repairs since I don’t live near the site. Installations in more protected areas have become a magnet for kids and adults, however, so I am going to score that a win (even though I have had to abandon the hope that a truly 24/7 all-access approach could be implemented in public spaces until a weatherproof shelving unit made from recycled plastic can be designed).

The donated bookshelf at the Orange Babies Namibia Foundation office holds a wide range of books for staff and older children to borrow. Now we need to get some books for younger readers to them, too!

The demand for materials I hadn’t even considered worth sourcing originally – secondhand lever-arch files, for example – has created a huge amount of work in terms of collection, sorting, storage, communication, and distribution (spoiler alert – Namibia is a HUGE country and not all potential recipients have smartphones or internet) and operations had reached a level that could not be supported by one volunteer (i.e., me) alone.

Furthermore, inventory has skewed very much toward non-literary fiction for adults/self-help books, and autobiographies by TV slebs. Meanwhile educational institutions, after-school clubs, community resource facilities and informal children’s drop-in centres were literally begging for appropriate materials for younger readers and it was becoming essential to try and identify a sustainable pipeline of suitable books for them. Preferably ones that feature black and brown characters in settings and contexts relatable to those same readers (and – one can only dream – even in indigenous languages at some point in the future.)

At the time of writing, I am engaged with a young Namibian woman with outstanding credentials who is preparing to transform the PPPI into a formal NGO so that we can approach donors and business partners as a registered entity, thus enhancing our credibility and reputation. This will also – it is hoped – give us access to support bodies such as Books for Africa and the ‘Read to Rise‘ initiative of the Southern Africa School of Project Management that can share the heavy lifting (metaphorical and practical) involved in getting books in bulk to Windhoek for us to distribute. Once we know this is do-able, we will be looking to apply for financial support to develop a network of dedicated sites around the land and also pay a member of staff.

Early days for both developments and I don’t want to jinx things by getting ahead of myself… but meeting the handful of people (all women) who have been able to see the potential for us to grow AND put their shoulders to the wheel to help in meaningful ways gives me confidence that after – essentially – years of waiting for the PPPI to blossom into its true potential, I can envisage its next stage, as a vibrant movement with international support and truly inclusive national coverage.

The pros and cons of the culture of volunteerism in Namibia

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I was stunned to see that it’s been more than a year since I wrote a post on this site. Well, family issues did play a role in this lack of activity, as did a nagging awareness that social media is responsible for a catastrophic contribution towards global carbon emissions through its profligate use of electricity generated by fossil fuels. I am not a doom-and-gloomer when it comes to the many productive applications of social media – I am certainly an avid consumer myself, albeit (I hope) a discerning one – but I do try to rein in my use of it, and limit how many posts, stories and updates I contribute on various platforms.

(It’s also not escaped my notice, of course, that WordPress promotes the use of AI technology for the creation of images etc…Down with this sort of thing! as they say on Craggy Island!)

However, the chief reason for a lack of webpage activity has been the fact that, perhaps more than at any other time in my life, I have been BUSY in ways I could not have foreseen this time last year. I continue to joyfully manage the Sew Good Namibia project on a voluntary basis, responsible for marketing and logistics while our four craftswomen create their wonderful designs (currently sold at 12 outlets around the country) to support their families. I’m also still writing the short stories that are regularly published in online journals and magazines – a second collection of which will soon appear in print (as The Limbo Circus) through the marvelous Modjaji Books.

However the principal reason why my days are filled with bustle and hustle is the incredible growth of the Promising Pages Pilot Initiative (PPPI) that was launched early last year. I have been overwhelmed by the success of the pilot phase since we kicked off with a few requests for book donations and suggestions for sites where we could put up suitable receptacles where ordinary Namibians could ‘Take a book. Read a book. Return a book’. As always, identifying dynamic individuals who understand a hypothetical idea and want to see it flourish as a practical enterprise entails expending a GREAT deal of time and effort with others who turn out to be time-wasters in the end (regrettable, but true). And, as I discovered with ‘Sew Good Namibia‘, it’s critical to let a project develop organically in its own time, and in its own way, rather than imposing inflexible and unrealistic expectations on an untried concept.

In addition, each and every one of the thousands of books, pamphlets, journals, study guides, and magazines that have been given to the PPPI to date have to be assessed for suitability (older, pre-Independence materials, especially, will not pass muster in these more enlightened times and have been donated to the Katutura Community Art Centre for use in installations and other artworks). Then these have to be categorised according to language, age of the readership, and genre before being packed up ready for distribution.

At the time of writing we now have little library installations in disadvantaged communities in Okahandja and Hakahana, with others scheduled soon for the Physically Active Youth and Mammadu Trust premises in Katutura, Windhoek. The University of Namibia Main Campus also has two large bookshelves in place and regularly replenished with a wide range of fiction, textbooks, non-fiction and Africana. It was amazing to see how many faculty and students turned up for the official launch in March, racing to select some reading matter to borrow the minute the ribbon was cut on the shelving. More little libraries will be established at Groot Aub and Rehoboth, to the south of Windhoek, in the near future and plans for further expansion are in the works.

All this requires a great deal of time, effort, admin, petrol and schlepping, 7 days a week, which I am thrilled to have the hours and energy to still contribute right now. I’ve also expanded my circle of friends as generous donors and enthusiastic community members embrace the PPPI idea and help it to expand. An additional gift.

Promising Pages Pilot Initiative (PPPI) poster created in four languages widely used by Namibians

BUT. Namibia has a huge cohort of keen, articulate, educated and media-savvy young people currently looking for work. Our youth unemployment rate is almost 3 times the global average. It is unsustainable for PPPI to continue to be administered and run by one, unpaid volunteer yet this is how so many grassroots projects continue to exist in Namibia while expensive, pie-in-the-sky propositions to uplift citizens receive extensive taxpayer funding only to sink without a trace.

If the government and international funding bodies are serious about producing future generations conversant in a language that’s not the mother tongue for the vast majority of them, then movements – such as the PPPI – that increase access to English-language materials need to be formalised and then supported by appropriate institutions and development partners. Furthermore, local authors and creatives need financial support to produce books that reflect the lives of our young citizens, published in our indigenous languages for free distribution around the country.

The search is on for someone, or a group of someones, who can take the PPPI and turn it into a sustainable model for a nationwide network of fixed installations and mobile libraries while being paid a decent salary to do so. Let’s hope that by the time I check in again, this will have become a reality.