Girl-centered books to 60 village libraries

Greetings donors and friends,

Not much to report over past few weeks, since we are waiting for further donations before making another book purchase.  Meanwhile, here is the update about FAVL activities of 2016 from our latest newsletter.

In Burkina Faso:

• 20 new libraries in the provinces of Bam and Sanmatenga were opened in the beginning of 2016 as part of a large $450,000 grant from USDA/Catholic Relief Services Beoog Biiga II project.   A 21st  library opened in the town of Sebba near the border with Niger.  The marginalized populations of the Sahel, where life is made increasingly precarious by insecurity and climate change, are very much in need of more investments in education.  
• A first annual conference was held in Ouagadougou, with 29 librarians from around the country attending.  
• Four new books were developed, printed and distributed, thanks especially to the efforts of a volunteer university student from U.C. Berkeley.
• Summer reading camps were held in 22 libraries.  These are amazing opportunities for 4th graders to improve their reading skills and start using their village library.
• The staff is working with two libraries (Boni and Ouargaye) that were closed during the political upheavals of 2014 and 2015, and they should reopen soon.

In Ghana:

• After-school reading programs were organized in all three libraries.
• 300 books, primarily African novels, Ghanaian children’s books, and some school books, were purchased in Accra, to replenish some of the now very old book collections.
• Coordinator Paul Ayutoliya continues to meet with officials to secure more local support for the libraries.

In Uganda:

• The Uganda Community Libraries Association (UgCLA) held its sixth annual conference in January 2016. The conference was hosted by one of the Association's member libraries, that of Uganda Development Services (UDS) in the eastern town of Kamuli. More than 40 people attended, including representatives of 21 libraries.
• Kitengesa Library has hosted visits from classes in local schools.  Hundreds of students had the chance to spend class time reading books.

In the United States:

• FAVL has received great service from two Santa Clara University student interns in 2016. Maria leveraged her French skills to produce four posters about reading that are now on the walls of many of the libraries.  Bethany has been keeping our Quickbooks accounting system up to date.  They have both also done a lot of blog post formatting, editing, book production, and all the office tasks that keep us humming.  We are really grateful for these contributions.

Links:

• FAVL website and blog