NEW ALBANY — It didn’t take long for Leonard Gbloh to realize he was a long way from home.

Gbloh, education secretary of United Methodist Church schools in Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa with a population of 5.5 million, visited two schools in New Albany on Monday morning — Mount Tabor Elementary and Christian Academy of Indiana. He wanted to get a look into how elementary students are taught in the United States, which he said is much different than his country.

“I am very, very impressed,” Gbloh said of his visit. “We don’t have these kinds of facilities at all. To see kindergartners sitting in front of computers is just unimaginable.”

For the students of Sierra Leone, having books, school libraries or classrooms with less than 40 students is also “unimaginable.”

But several churches in Indiana are trying to make a difference in the lives of students of Sierra Leone. They are collecting books appropriate for elementary-age children and shipping them to the  country. Thanks to the effort, Sierra Leone has five school libraries filled with books.

One of the churches involved is Trinity United Methodist in New Albany. Trinity has collected thousands of books and shipped them to Africa, according to Juanita Schmitt, a church member and retired educator. Several educators from Indiana visited Sierra Leone last year, and Schmitt along with fellow Trinity members Rita and Art Marking, accompanied the group.

The goal of the trip was to work with teachers to help improve communication skills, which can be difficult without textbooks. The only tools teachers have are chalk and old, worn-out chalk boards.

But the group of churches is trying to make learning a little easier.

“It is so necessary for children to have something to read,” Schmitt said.  

Gbloh, who is education secretary for more than 340 schools, said the books have been very helpful.

“They have helped us improve teaching. We have books now for reference materials,” he said.

Schmitt said Trinity members collected about 80 boxes of books. Getting those books shipped to Africa costs about 25 cents a book, which makes the endeavor expensive.

“We are trying to reach out to raise more funds for more libraries,” she said. “We are very excited about it.”

As for his trip to New Albany on Monday, Gbloh said he enjoyed visiting the elementary classrooms.

“The atmosphere is very conducive to learning here,” he said. “They make it very comfortable for the kids.”

Gbloh spent two weeks in Florida before making his way to New Albany. He will be in Indianapolis later this week.