Girl-centered books to 60 village libraries

FAVL’s partner organization in Burkina Faso, ABVBF, continued to produce, print, and distribute books (in a series called Centre Multimedia Houndé, CMH, books). This year about 5,000 books were distributed. Here is what our ABVBF director wrote about the November distribution of books to middle school students in Maro village in Tuy province: “152 middle school students each received a set of 10 books, for a total of 1520 books distributed. This distribution was easy thanks to the collaboration of the staff of the school. The distributions in the different classes were followed by awareness raising on the importance of reading and libraries. The ABVBF team also organized book reading sessions followed by reading comprehension questions in the different classes. This free distribution of CMH books aims to provide students with reading material to cultivate in them a taste for reading in order to improve their reading ability. The books are written by middle and high school students from Houndé, then illustrated by talented illustrators, then printed and assembled locally. The ABVBF team, before leaving, wished all the students well, then invited them to discover the libraries of the commune of Béréba.”

In addition, in December the team purchased 10 copies of a locally-produced children's magazine, for each library.

In July 2024 FAVL presented books to the newly re-opened library of Boni, Burkina Faso. The library had been closed for several years due to violence in the area. Peace has returned to the region, and civil authorities are more interested in supporting the libraries.

Here is the team report of visit to Boni, translated from French:

A team of Friends of Village Libraries of Burkina Faso/ABVBF visited the community library of Boni on July 3, 2024. This visit aimed to see what happened after the reopening of the said library. By looking around the shelves, the team noticed that the places are clean and the documents are well organized. At the end of the visit to the shelves, the president had discussions with the manager, focused first on timetable because it is necessary to adopt opening hours which will allow users to frequent the library. Then, they talked about how to inform and educate communities to go to the library and read. The team suggested that the manager write messages and post them in public places. In addition to postings, it must use the channel of social networks such as Facebook or WhatsApp. Before leaving, the team encouraged the manager to read and do everything possible to ensure that the library was useful to the population.

FAVL supports the local production of books in Houndé, Burkina Faso (called CMH books), through initiatives aimed at fostering a culture of writing and publishing within the community. This includes facilitating writing workshops and training sessions for aspiring authors, as well as providing support for the publication and distribution of locally-authored books. Additionally, FAVL collaborates with local illustrators to produce attractive books relevant to the community's needs and interests. By promoting local authorship and book production, FAVL aims to increase access to culturally relevant reading materials and promote literacy and education in the region. The focus of the majority of the books is on issues confronting women in local society. many of the authors are young women from the town of Hounde.