Thanks to our ever-generous donors, we've been able to get all 6 Aya books in all 12 of village libraries in Burkina. We were even able to get some extras (a second copy of 1 book in the series for each of the libraries) because the price of the books decreased since we started the project. In total, we were able to purchase 81 Aya books. Aya books are popular in village libraries because they include characters and situations that are familiar to their everyday lives, in contrast to a lot of literature that comes from France or other countries that are not familiar to community members.
Using the Aya books, librarians have organized group discussions, theater productions and other activities to begin dialogue about certain issues that are addressed in the series, including girls' education, teen pregnancy and alcoholism, discussions which are often easier to begin when the medium of a book or story is involved. Using a new technology called Frontline SMS, we were able to send out mass text messages to librarians to more easily keep track of which Aya books they'd already received, encourage librarians to promote the books in their villages and send out ideas for activities that librarians could organize. The books have been incredibly beneficial to the village libraries as well as their communities as a whole.
Look for more FAVL projects coming soon to GlobalGiving to help us get other book series in Burkina village Libraries.
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After a long wait, the bookstore in Ouaga finally got more copies of the 6 Aya books! With funds raised on GlobalGiving, we were able to purchase 15 of the books (at least 2 copies of each number in the series). Each library will receive 2 of the books, and 3 libraries will receive an additional book. Readers are impatiently waiting the new books to find out what happens next in the adventures of Aya de Yopougon.
We've been increasing efforts to promote the series in the village libraries. Recently, we started working with a software called Frontline SMS, which allows us to use a computer to send a mass text message to a network of librarians and readers. We've started using Frontline to promote Aya and encourage librarians to come up with innovative activities and projects based on the books.
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Thanks to generous donors, our project to get the Aya de Youpougon series to each of our twelve village libraries in Burkina Faso has been a big success. So far we have purchased a total of 24 books (2 per library) and have been able to order 18 more. We ordered them from a local bookstore a couple of months ago and are waiting for the books to come in, and they should be here by the end of April (shipping to Burkina takes a little while). We're very excited to get the books and send them to the libraries. Librarians say that the Aya books that are at the libraries now are very popular, and reader eagerly await the rest of the series in order to find out what happens to Aya and her friends. The comics are very popular because they are filled with West African slang, familiar images, relatable characters, and situations that are common in everyday life in West Africa. They are also great for everyone from kids to adults. We can't wait to get the rest of the books in the series to the libraries!
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With funds that generous donors gave to FAVL via GlobalGiving, we have enough money to buy 25 copies (2 copies per library in Burkina) of books in the Aya series at the local bookstore. So we purchased three copies each of Aya #1, Aya #2, Aya #3 and Aya #4 for a total of 12 books. Since the bookstore was a little short on copies (they are very popular books and rarely stay in stock long!), we placed an order for 9 more copies of #1, 4 copies of #2 and 2 copies of #3. When that order comes in, each library will have a copy of the first three books in the series and we’ll be halfway to our goal for getting the whole series in each library! We’ve told the librarians to make sure that when they receive their new Aya books, to leave them in the library so all the patrons can enjoy them before they get checked out. Kids get so excited to see the new books on the shelves, so we’re going to make sure to send out these new copies right away.
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With the recent donations that we've gotten from the Global Giving website, FAVL has enough funds to purchase 12 more copies of books in the Aya de Yopougon series. Unfortunately, the local bookstore was short on copies. So we ordered 12 copies of the first in the series, which none of the libraries currently has. The books will come into the bookstore at the end of October, and then we will be able to send one book to each of the libraries in Burkina. We will then ask each librarian to keep the book in the library for at least a month before they allow patrons to check them out. Hopefully, by this time everyone in the community will have had time to see the book and be able to page through it at the library before everyone goes crazy checking it out!
As we've said in previous reports, the Aya series is extremely popular at the village libraries. It is rare to find a book, especially a graphic novel, that is written by an African and accurately depicts daily life. Readers easily relate to the characters and dialogue because the situations and slang are familiar to them.
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