In 2018, as snow was falling from Kabul's sky, a small dream named Charmaghz was born in our beautiful mountainous city. Charmaghz is a Kabul based NGO. We turn old public buses into mobile libraries, promoting critical thinking, providing a space for children to read, think, and ask questions. We started with one library and today, we have four mobile libraries and one education mobile cinema. Since 2018, we had 210,000 visits, making us the most visited library in Afghanistan!
From our five libraries, three of them will continue having their funding throughout 2021 with generous support by Afghan private sector. However, two of them are facing the risk of closure as they lost their sponsors due to COVID 19 pandemic and financial crisis. It means that the 200 children who are visiting these two libraries on a daily basis, may not be able to do so anymore, if we fail to find operational funding for our libraries for the year 2021.
Charmaghz's solution to low quality education and lack of children libraries is to turn old public buses into mobile libraries. These libraries visit specific neighborhoods based on a pre-determined schedule to offer children a space for a wide range of activities including reading, debate and play. Charmaghz's mobile buses are a cost-effective solution-one bus can visit multiple localities or schools each day, providing services to several groups of children.
With your donations for these 2 libraries, each day 200 children will read books, question and think. In long term, our work will help them in their journey of growing to adults with critical thinking skills, tolerance and creativity. They will be empowered to have skills to ask questions, to make their life decisions in whatever way life give meaning to them and to contribute to the society. We envision to see children growing to adults who will choose love and life over war.
