A church and coinciding organization, Center for Nonviolence and Conflict Transformation, in Rockford, Illinois is sending a mobile library for kids to terrorist-ridden Nigeria.
By: Christine Sheller, staff, Iowa Peace Network
This library is a van full of books and also includes a computer. Nigeria is the “number one place in the world for the most out-of-school kids,” says Melissa Powers, director of missions at Rockford Community Church. (Langer, Lauren, “Stateliners Work to Send Mobile Library to Nigeria,” Nextstar Broadcasting, www.mystateline.com/news/stateliners-work-to-send-mobile-library-to-nigeria) Many citizens of Nigeria have been targeted with violence and churches have been burned, people killed and kidnapped and displaced by the Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram. (See June 14 article, Crisis in Nigeria, for more information on the terrorism in Nigeria and other work that is going on there.)
Samuel Sarpiya is pastor of
Rockford Community Church, & grew up in Nigeria, so this is something he
holds close in his heart he says.
Currently 48% of the population in Nigeria is under 17, and education is
the key, Sarpiya believes, to help raise the next leaders who will be leaders
that say no to terrorist activities.
Powers says, too, “Education helps them see that there’s a different
way; it helps them to know that they have another choice they can make instead
of joining groups like Boko Haram.” (Langer,
Lauren, “Stateliners Work to Send Mobile Library to Nigeria,” Nextstar Broadcasting,
www.mystateline.com/news/stateliners-work-to-send-mobile-library-to-nigeria)
The children know the library
is coming, and they are excited.
They are raising money for
more books and hopefully additional mobile libraries and computers. Their hope is to get the whole community of
Rockford, IL involved, and to also set up a permanent library in a building (in
Nigeria) as well.
If you’d like to know more,
go to the website for the Center for Nonviolence and Conflict
Transformation: www.nonviolencect.com.
If you’d like to help the
cause- there is an opportunity at the following address: https://www.gofundme.com/kidslibrary
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