Girl-centered books to 60 village libraries

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.

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 in mid-July. Schools remains closed until October.

Two workshop and refresher trainings were held for librarians in northern Burkina Faso, in Kaya and Kongoussi, in mid-July. FAVL staff have visited many of the libraries in Tuy province (libraries in the north and near international borders are threatened by an insurgency and travel is not advisable). Librarians are enthusiastic about opening and patrons have already started to come to borrow books.

Thanks for your support for libraries over the years! In coming months we will use available funds to purchase books to distribute to libraries.

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.