Girls' Computer Literacy & Leadership Program

Libraries and most other public activities in Burkina Faso were closed due to COVID19, in late March 2020. The government in July decided to start reopening, and the office of the mayor of Houndé decided to permit activities to resume. Officially, the pandemic has largely spared Burkina Faso, with only a few thousand cases, total, as of late July. It is impossible to know at present how accurate the official case tallies are.

FAVL-Burkina Faso, in consultation with local authorities, decided to reopen activities of the multi-media center in Houndé (CMH) in mid-July. Schools remains closed until October. The CMH hosted some small afternoon workshops for young women interested in producing books, and also distributed books to several libraries in northern Burkina Faso, urging readers (and especially young women) to write their own books.

Thanks for your support for the mobile library over the years!

Thanks for your support of this project over the past months. As you might imagine, the COVID-19 virus has been put a hold on most library activities. Libraries in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Uganda have been closed following recommendations of local authorities. One of the last activities done in Burkina Faso was to create a book about COVID-19 and how to prevent the spread of the virus. The book was distributed to the last visit to villages in Tuy province mid-March. Instead of reporting on recent activities, then we have a selection of photos from the last month (February) when libraries were open. We are looking forward to eventual re-opening of libraries as soon as prudent.

The Houndé multimedia center continues to host once-a-month training sessions for young women in the Houndé area (neighboring villages of Karaba, Bereba, and Dohoun for example). The photos below are from November 2019 session. Also, some of the local illustrators are using the computers to train in how to edit and do graphic design for the illustrated books that are being printed in the center.

Some brief updates about other library support: The Kitengesa library in Uganda continues to thrive. This year a health reading camp was held for adult women, focusing on women’s cancer. Another reading camp was held for teenagers, and a further women’s reading camp is planned for later in the year. The Kitengesa Library Band continues to practice and perform.

In Burkina Faso, we are currently supporting 34 community libraries. Terrorist activity in northern Burkina Faso unfortunately has meant that four libraries are temporarily closed due to danger (schools and administrative buildings are targets.) For the libraries that are open, we continue to do the best we can to provide regular assistance to mayors and rural councils in managing the libraries, supply select libraries with new books, train librarians, and offer salary support for some of the librarians. Our Burkina team continues to produce photos books for young readers as well as books written by young people and illustrated with local illustrators.

In Ghana, our able partner organization CESRUD and its library coordinator Paul Ayutoliya continue to manage the three libraries of Sumbrungu, Gowrie-Kunkua, and Sherigu. These libraries regularly receive 30 or more visits a day- about 1,000 visits each month. They are open for night reading, as they are now connected to electricity. Donors this year helped fix the fans (it gets to 110 degrees during the day!). After school reading programs were held in September and are planned for this summer. All three libraries received several hundred new books over the course of the year thanks to support from Biblionef Ghana and the Ghana Book Trust.

Updates and lots of photos from all three countries are regularly posted to the FAVL blog.

Translated from the French, from FAVL program manager Boué Alidou

The multimedia center of Houndé (CMH), in the interest of multiplying its activities to the benefit of the populations, held for the second time a training in use of computers. This second training was held for young women coming from the villages of Sara, Dohoun, Karaba and Houndé. Two tutors from the first training were there also. The participants received a lot of practical knowledge on the computer namely: "How to turn on, turn off, put in sleep and restart a computer, the role of the buttons of the keyboard". Participants touched each button to see the feature. The role of the right and left buttons of the mouse. Exercises for entering sentences and paragraphs of texts taken from CMH books. The women practiced typing and also how to select a word, a sentence and a text; change the size and font, save and save a version. They also learned how to create a folder and copy and paste. These activities were conducted under the guidance of the tutors who worked tirelessly to support the participants. We observed a good concentration of the participants during these two days of work at the end of which they also wrote a book by entering the text on the computer. The book is titled The lack of civility in schools. It will be corrected and printed for the benefit of the readers.

But compared to the first formation, we can note that the second one knew some divergences in particular:

• Increase in the number of computers in the center. The FAVL Ouaga staff dispatched two computers for reinforcement. This made the job much easier and allowed all the participants to become familiar with the computer.
• The participation of the tutors during the training was good
• The level of participants was slightly below the first. A lot of emphasis has been put on the typing of words in Word software.
• A first time to touch the computer buttons for half of the girls. Which led us to concentrate on many typing exercises.
• We also promoted reading during the training. Each participant took a CMH book during her break to read a few paragraphs.

The training ended on Saturday, July 20, 2019. The participants received the advice of the staff to seize the opportunity when the time comes to deepen their knowledge of computers. It was a pleasure to have allowed these young people to achieve a good performance on the introduction to the computer in a spirit of sharing and camaraderie.

Translation of a report sent in French

The Multimedia Center of Houndé (CMH) hosted on 21 and 22 June 2019 a training of nine young women from Houndé, Karaba, Dohoun and Boni to computers. They had benefited from an earlier training during the month of May 2019. A month later, they all responded to the call to come to deepen their knowledge of these tools. The first day of June 21, 2019 as soon as they arrive in the morning, some were quickly put to the test by turning on the computer and began to practice typing. We observed during this beginning of the day exercises to enter a text with the application of the various elements (selected, put in bold, save, change the size and font of the text). In the afternoon, they were trained on the alignment of text, spacing, special characters and symbols and how to draw a table. The second day the girls each wrote a text from a book called: The activities of a good student. We made corrections and compilations of the texts and each entered a paragraph of the text on Word by applying the rules. It was a good typing exercise for them. It should be noted that at the beginning, most girls typed with one finger; but by dint of recalling them, we noticed the second day that they apply the typing of both hands with ease. They found that it is much faster. The rest of the second day saw the visit of the children's library in Houndé. They were welcomed by the manager. After the greetings and presentation, the manager invited them to visit the library. She presented her library and explained how it works. She invited the girls to read. She read aloud a book Afi and asked the girls to discuss. It was also an opportunity for the girls to visit the library's computer training room. They asked questions about how the library works. It should be noted that the librarian is an open, smiling and very welcoming manager. Back from the library, after lunch, we worked on the borders of pages and texts. And on each exercise for a few minutes. We finished the day with counseling. We encouraged them to continue learning the tool and to reassure them that the doors of the center are open for those who will be in Houndé and wish to practice. It is in this friendly atmosphere that we separated from the participants. It should be noted that these nine young women now master these basic elements of the computer tool. They can assist where needed.