Up Close … with Ruby de Silva |23 July 2019

Ms De Silva

‘I encourage the young generation to read so they can better themselves’

By Laura Pillay

This week, we sat down with Ruby De Silva, one of the two ladies to be decorated with the Médaille d'Honneur du Travail échelon Grand Or by French Ambassador to Seychelles, His Excellency Lionel Majeste-Larrouy, on July 14, for having dedicated 40 years of hard work to L’Alliance Française des Seychelles and for her continuous efforts in promoting French as a language in Seychelles.

Alliance Française des Seychelles was established in 1956 to promote French as a language and French culture. It regularly hosts educational and artistic exhibitions, concerts, conferences and workshops targeted at the general public. The facility boasts a multimedia library containing over 15,000 works related to French culture including 450 comics, a large collection of children’s literature, films and video games, all of which are organised and managed by the librarian, Ms De Silva.

Ms De Silva commenced her journey with Alliance Française in 1978 at the tender age of 17 after having completed her O Levels. Forty years and a few months on, she is as enthusiastic about her career choice and is determined to keep going.

Background and early childhood

Ms De Silva was born to a Seychellois mother and Sri Lankan father in 1961 and was raised in a creole and English-speaking household with her siblings. While growing up, she was passionate about sports and she discovered her love for books at the school she attended, the Regina Mundi Convent.

She recounts that as an Anglican, she was not obliged to take catechism classes at school and would make use of her free time to be an aid to the principal secretary for Education at the time, Sister Jude Burke, who also taught history and managed the school library. Helping in the library, a young Ms De Silva’s interest in books grew and she began to “read a lot”.

Being an active and sporty young girl who participated in all sporting activities at school level, Ms De Silva did not always dream of herself as a librarian.

“I was very sporty and I played netball, volleyball, basketball, every sport and at school I would also participate in all the sports, table tennis, tennis, badminton. I wanted to do something related to sports, and when I got the job at Alliance Française, I did not think I would be in the job that long. I didn’t even see the years go by, and I am still here.”

“Thankfully, I am capable and if I am still healthy, I will stay at Alliance Française for a while. Later, I have an idea to open something for myself, maybe in this field but something to do with clients as I don’t see Ruby just reading books at home. I think that can make me sick, even when I am on leave from work, I miss my clients, my regulars and Alliance Française, and everyone sends me messages asking when I’m coming back but it depends how things pan out,” she utters cheerfully.

Let’s rewind to when she started her journey with Alliance Française

A young Ruby started her journey with Alliance Française during her final school term.

“Before I even finished my studies, my brother told me that the French embassy is seeking to recruit someone to be a librarian. His friend had suggested the job to him but he dismissed it as a girl’s job and told me about it and to go see the director. I was not confident in my French and I was not fluent since I only spoke it at school but I went for it anyway and tried my luck. I think I had an advantage however, because at the time, my mother paid a tutor to show me to type on a type-writer so I already knew how to do it and at the time, it was an advantage.

Actually, after a few days, I came back and told my mother that I could not stay in the job because I have to speak French every day, that I would work for only a short period of time but she advised that I would get used to it. My siblings also advised me to stay put and 40 plus years later, here I am, still at Alliance Française!”

During her time at the organisation, Ms De Silva has seen and welcomed many changes and developments which has helped her to grow as an individual.

“While here, I have seen around 20 directors and probably 16 ambassadors. When I started, there was a female director, as we do now but we have mostly had male directors. Some have stayed in the post for two, three or four years and with each person that comes, they each have their own work ethic, and it is thus necessary to adapt to their method. Each person has their own way of managing”.

On account of her hard work and devotion, Ms De Silva has been offered numerous opportunities for training and development both at local and international level during her career. She has attended short courses in Librarianship in Reunion as well as a two-year programme in France. La Reunion presented an opportunity to broaden her knowledge about the profession as she was among all the librarians from Alliance Française de L’ocean Indien, with librarians from Djibouti, Mauritius, Madagascar and herself as the only one from Seychelles.

In France, Ms De Silva underwent training in managing multimedia libraries. Multimedia libraries function as libraries but offer clients more than book, newspapers and magazines to also offer DVDs, CDs, audio books and video games, all of which are available at Alliance Française.

“We are always learning, it is continuous.”

40 years of loyalty to one organisation. How would you describe those 40 years?

“I think I have made it this long because of appreciation, loyalty and I am someone who is hardworking. When I first started, my working day commenced at 9am but I was always at the office by 7am. I like coming in to work very early and I like to get things done at the earliest possible. Even if I work alone and there’s a lot to do, I know how to manage my day and my time.

I work with children and they always say I am nice and that I am always smiling. Whenever I am absent, they will ask about my whereabouts. I am a mother so I tend to mother them. I am a very open person as well and I think I am approachable. I think being approachable is important when working with people and clients.

But for me, it has not been hard. There have been ups and downs but I have overcome thanks to my colleagues, my mother, brother, sister and my daughter. I have always said to everyone that Alliance Française is my ‘fille aimée’ because when I started, I had no children, and I had my daughter later. I would sometimes get the feeling that my daughter was slightly jealous because I give everything I can to my job and while she was growing up, she would say ‘you are always at Alliance Française’”.

Words of wisdom

“You need to strive in life and you cannot just say you will try but you do it. You need to look further and don’t limit yourself by saying it is impossible or unachievable. Nobody was born perfect but practice and you can perfect something. So, you have to follow your dreams and you have to strive to go forward. I like changes and have been able to adapt to many changes over the years, so you need to be resilient and adapt and if you know and like your job, there won’t be many barriers.

I encourage the young generation to read so they can better themselves. Seychelles has three official languages, Creole, English and French and it is important for them to read in French as well. I hear too many people say they ‘don’t like French’ and ‘it’s hard’ which is where I was at when I started the job but practicing and reading really helps an individual to perfect their French. I adore French books and at least 75 percent of my reading is dedicated to French books but I always ensure to read in English as well so as not to lose practice.”

Seychelles NATION wishes to congratulate Ms De Silva on her medal of honour.