Girl-centered books to 60 village libraries

Hello friends,

FAVL staff in Burkina Faso recently attended the biennial book fair, held in Bobo-Dioulasso in the southwest. The fair was fairly small, but there were some vendors, and so FAVL staff purchased about 10 books for distribution in the libraries.  Most of the books were purchased from the publisher Ganndal, from Guinea, and a local publishing house of Burkina Faso writers, MOTS D'ELLES. During the fair, FAVL librarians also leared how to protect book covers with transparent sticky book cover material, and so they are starting to learn how to best apply that to new books and older books.

We have only received modest donations on this project. Rest assured that donations from other sources continue, and FAVL tries to actively support libraries with those funds.

As part of the support for libraries supported by FAVL and the local association "Amis des Bibliothèques de Villages du Burkina Faso / ABVBF", the national coordinator of FAVL Sanou Dounko visited on January 5, 2022, two large bookshops (Jeunesse d'Afrique and Mercury ) which are all located in Ouagadougou. During these visits, he paid for twenty children's books. The works deal with several subjects such as: storytelling, friendship, travel, life in society, fiction, academic success, education, insecurity, the importance of reading, children and law and humor. These books will be delivered to one of the libraries where the manager is dynamic. These books are suitable for young people and will allow users of the said beneficiary library to discover the contents of the works, to share the ideas and opinions of writers.

Hello friends! We did not receive donations for this project during the past several months, so no big activities to report. FAVL continues of course to support 38 libraries and a variety of reading programs in Burkina Faso. We look forward to making books purchases later this year, so any spare funds you might have for donations would be much appreciated. We are including several photos taken in August from the libraries. Many are thriving, and see regular readers. So, having a steady stream of new books is important for promoting the joy of reading. We look forward to purchased more girl-centered and women-authored books!

A very generous donation of several thousand (practically) new childrens books in French from a local FAVL friend meant that we spent $1500 shipping books to Burkina Faso for distribution in the libraries. These children's books include many "girl-friendly" books, which are especially attractive for the libraries. Lots of early-grade chapter books and illustrated books. The team in Burkina Faso has started to distribute books, and will continue to do so in the coming months. if we receive more donations in coming months we shall also do a large purchase from local bookstore in Ouagadougou that carries books by African authors.

In the past year 2020, FAVL received just over $500 in donations for this project. Most of the funds were received in the last month of December. We thank the many donors!

We are planning then to use these funds to purchase a large selection of books for the mobile library in January. In our next report, we will have photos of the receipts and distribution of the books. Something to look forward to!

On regular library activities, the FAVL blog has been filled in recent months with news of activities from various libraries and programs since October when activities resumed after the end of the Covid19 lockdowns and restrictions. The mobile library in Houndé has been active, delivering reading materials to kids in schools. Librarians in the Tuy region have resumed monthly gatherings. The FAVL representative in Burkina Faso, Sanou Dounko, regularly visits libraries. In October, he held a meeting with several mayors to coordinate efforts to ensure that librarians are hired as “municipal” employees. He met with librarians in three regional meetings in early December. Over in Ghana, CESRUD library coordinator Paul Ayutoliya has overseen the re-roofing and refurbishment of Gowrie-Kunkua library, as the roof blew off in a violent rainstorm in May. The Sumbrungu and Sherigu libraries have been very busy since they reopened. FAVL has also been committing funding to modest renewal of book collections, and locally in Burkina Faso the Ministry of Culture as well as the U.S. Embassy have been supporting the libraries. More news is available on the blog.