Sticker supply boost thanks to Debbie Tanzer's book, Do One Nice Thing

FAVL has received many lovely stickers for our child readers upon a recommendation contained in Debbie Tanzer's book, Do One Nice Thing. She included a wonderful 2-pg write-up of our work and how individuals could help incentivize our reading program by sending cute stickers. We've received 5 packets, the most recent a delightful sticker and bookmark collection prepared by a grandmother and her grandkids as a summer project. The accompanying notes are heartwarming, too.

More photos from Summer reading camp in Bereba village... photo: Madelyn Bagby

Ding dong the 990's done...

Every small non-profit dreads the day of the IRS form 990... and last May we dreaded so much we just applied for automatic extension. yesterday FAVL Treasurer sat down for five hours and completed all the forms. Yaay! Big THANK YOU to Deb... without dedicated people like her, willing to spend five hours on a gorgeous Saturday morning here in San Jose, FAVL would not be able to implement the libraries and reading programs that our generous donors help fund.

Ricky Alexander report from Chalula library

The food situation is more than satisfactory. Henry is coordinating things on that front for me in the village as Aaron is busy with some local government business and has been ill with the flu the past week or so on top of it. Henry has been great, making sure I'm satisfied with everything and the food is great! I'm sure going to miss ugali and mchuzi when I get back to the US! haha Henry set me up very nicely in the guesthouse adjacent to the school and library and I'm sleeping there with the company of a few children who are very sweet. It works out well...I tutor them in English and they help me learn Swahili. So food/lodging are great! (Joseph has been very helpful with escorting me to and from transportation and helping me while I'm in town at Dodoma. He lives here in Dodoma and works with Habitat for Humanity but is very much in touch with Henry and Aaron and very helpful and responsible. He is a great contact and knowledgeable about development in rural areas in Tanzania.)

The library is a wonderful place for the children to read during school breaks and after classes get out for the day. It is a nice structure and the bookshelves and tables/chairs are in good condition. What is lacking are resources (as I'm guessing is the case with most if not all FAVL libraries and other educational facilities in sub-Saharan Africa). The 200 or so Swahili children's books are tattered from overuse and many are falling apart and need to be taped together. The English books do not get used much as the nearest secondary school is quite far and the teenagers rarely walk the distance to the library. (Also, many are not culturally relevant as they are American/Euro-centric). So...what is needed are more children's books in Swahili, beginners/intermediate level English-learning books, rudimentary English stories, bilingual materials would be ideal, and a comprehensive Swahili-English dictionary would be great. I look forward to discussing possibilities for utilizing FAVL funds and/or fundraising to send some of these resources to the Chalula library when I return.

While resources is the main issue, usage is very high. The library is usually very full with all the tables and chairs full and scores of children sitting on the floor/along the walls. The children understand the importance of education/literacy and seek it, when the facilities and encouragement are there to promote it.

POINT DE VUE DE KOURA SEKOU SUR LA BIBLIOTHEQUE DE BEREBA

Received from Burkina Faso...

A toute personne qui me lira, je voudrais qu’elle sache que tout en accomplissant ce rédigé j’en suis de cœur. Oui pour un rat de la bibliothèque préparant munitieusement mon prochain roman de lui-même sur l’apologie de la lecture, imaginez l’intensité de joie quand on lui permet d’en faire l’exégèse …
A priori, je tiens hermétiquement voir consciencieusement à orienter mon salut si modeste soit_ il à l’endroit de tous les acteurs en patrouille de culture, d’éducation et…Et quoi de plus émérite ! Puisque tous nous savions ce qu’il faut à celui qu ‘il faut : à la bibliothèque de villageoise reconnaissance et haute assistance.
Bibliothèque de BEREBA ,moi je tiens en tant que celui qui est en train d’écrire, je suis en long et en large redevable très redevable et redevable encore. Je sais cependant qu ‘à travers une telle subjectivité l’on serait allé jusqu’à croire que je projette à me faire plaire tel un poète. Pour toute réalité donc, je ne suis naturellement pas celui qui rit quand il fallait le cri de détresse, simplement parce que l’on m’a intimidé d’une force physique ou d’une arme me dépassant. Non ! Et non ! Il me déplait à moi de jeter des fleurs à ce qu’il ne convient car cela en serait de gratuité. Quoi qu’on dise et quoi qu’on blasphème, la bibliothèque elle, mérite à bravoure, à vaillance sa fleur honorablement étoffée.
Eh ! Mon lecteur, daigne m’excuser si je te suis trop prolixe, oui instinctivement j’aime à ergoter. C’est pour dire que tout ce dont j’ai proféré n’est qu’introductif du vif que je vais aussitôt entamer juste après ce paragraphe.
Tout est parti du cours moyen première année quand je faisais la connaissance de ce réseau de cultures mondiales à quoi l’on attribue le substantif de¨ BIBLIOTHEQUE.C’est donc à de l’année 2001 suite sur l’initiative de mon père aussi imprégné de la chose, jusqu’à l’heure actuelle et comme quitte à ce que je rende l’âme, que la largesse, la bienséance, la positivité de cette bibliothèque villageoise consistera à nourrir ma personne physique, à enrichir ma personne idéaliste à éclairer mon sens moral et à débroussailler ma grande voie spirituelle des dérives sociales en un mot elle m’a achevé d’être ce qu’; dieu veut en effet de par mes interminables lectures que de chose que j’ai découvertes !! Trop de grand personnage que j’ai enfin connu à l’interposition ; des bons nombres de philosophe emblématiques à qui personnellement je m’identifie dans le quotidien.
En ce qui concerne le volet étude ; par toutes les classes que j’ai passé moi me suivent toujours singularisé de part par distinction de lecteur, et pour cela des professeurs m’approuvaient admirablement à la différence des autres. A cet effet j’ai fini par entraîner toute une vague de camarades dans la lecture et quand il en était ainsi jante sentait fier d’entre imité.
A toute situation d’entretien scolaire ou de vie courante je viens toujours par-dessus non pas seulement par la pertinence de mes idées mais aussi par le rayonnement d’un langage appris et acquit et quant éventuellement on m’en exhorte, cela ne m’étonne aucunement puisque je sais pourquoi ceci : c’est simplement et purement légué par la bibliothèque et qui parle.
Un autre fondement est ludique : Relativement à ma typologie artistique en tant que prétentieux musicien j’ai des textes exclusifs parce que poétiques ; et qui parle de poésie cite alors la liberté d’expression d’individus !
C’est ainsi que les bienfaits de la lecture ont contribué dans mon engagement de la lutte contre l’impunité, la corruption en toutes ces dimensions. Socialement, mon souci majeur est de nécessairement passer par la voie des sans voix si réellement ces milliers d’ouvrages nous ont révélé une triste réalité de l’homme, des peuples assaillis par des boucheries de guerre, des masses impitoyablement malmenés de famines. Tous ces propos que j’avance n’ont rien d’utopique ; ils émanent des écrits réalistes issus de bibliothèque et je crois aussi n’avoir exacerbé rien. Des preuves tout à fait abonderont quand il s’agira de prôner l’adhésion impérative à la bibliothèque villageoise de BEREBA pour celui comme moi qui ai été dans trois 3 provinces du pays aussi dotées chacune d’une bibliothèque aérée que celle en comparaison. Chers amis ne vous en faites point car l’originalité de ces bibliothèques aérées réside seulement dans le fait qu’elles sont simplement vastes de construction mais si, matériellement notre bibliothèque l’emporte de par ces tas infinis, et diversifiés de tous les genres littéraires, c’est dire qu’en premier lieu, la notre ont bel et bien droit de citer
Avançons cependant qu’en dépit du succès retentissant qu’offre la dite bibliothèque, elle présente aussi bien des sentiers auxquels vous et nous devrions nous atteler en vue des perspectives plus larges pour une meilleure approche de la structure. Je voudrais croire qu’une vulgarisation de cette utilité de culture, nécessite le dévouement de tous à savoir le personnel siégeant à la localité, le lecteur, le parent concerné.
Nous aurions à nous affairer à des projets pour peu qu’ils traitent du maintien et répondent aux éventuelles aspirations.
Alors un vif souhait mais latent est de renchérir la prépondérante d’une fameuse bibliothèque développée pour s’entre transformée en un centre culturel ou instruit et analphabètes peuvent se cotonner et se donner mutuellement des idées.
Je suis d’autant convaincu qu’une bibliothèque de cette carrure plantée à BEREBA, ce serait la pêche ou le marigot refusera du monde en raison de l’excédent des adhérents.
En attendant, moi je vous prête serment pour ma part de contribution à la réédification de cette bibliothèque témoignant de tout mon être.
Oui ! Tôt ou tard ! Salut !
Kourage à SEKOUer

FAVL, Champions of Quality Education in Africa?

I hate doing this... but, for the sake of the libraries... sigh. It's like Cal Worthington used to say, "I'll stand on my head to get a kid reading a book!"

Dear friends,

We need your support!

We are very excited to be entrants in the Hewlett Foundation and Ashoka's Changemakers Competition, Champions of Quality Education in Africa. This is a global competition to recognize innovative solutions to improve the state of education in Africa.

By being part of this competition, we have a great opportunity to get the word out about our work to leaders in the education field, investors, the media, potential partners, and other supporters.

The competition winners will be decided by online voting, so the more people we can inspire, the better!

Please help us rally support for our work:

1. Visit our project entry http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/21377
2. Leave us feedback about our entry. Here's how:
1. If you do not have a Changemakers account, please click here to register on the site. It only takes a couple of minutes.
2. Login at the Changemakers website.
3. Go to the Champions of Quality Education in Africa competition page.
4. Visit my entry, read about what I do and leave me feedback! http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/21377
5. Update your profile and be part of a growing online community of support!
3. Spread the word to your colleagues and friends through your emails, blogs, or websites. I've included some information about us below that you are welcome to share with others.

This contest can give our work a great boost. Thank you very much for your help!

MICHAEL KEVANE and KATHY KNOWLES :The same fight !!!

That was the title of a note recently received from our Burkina Faso coordinator... with three letters of praise for Kathy Knowles and her continued inspiration to the librarians in Burkina....

Depuis novembre 2005 le coordonnateur et les gérants des bibliothèques de BEREBA ,SARA, KOUMBIA se sont retrouvé à ACCRA au GHANA pour suivre une formation sur la gestion des bibliothèques et surtout l’entretien des livres. Le séjour a été d’un succès inoubliable que toute l’équipe de FAVL ne peut pas s’en passer de parler.

Voilà des témoignages de certains gérants :
1 . SANOU DOUNKO
CHANGEMENTS CONSTATENT DANS NOS BIBLIOTHEQUES APRES LA FORMATION AU GHANA
En novembre 2005,quatre 4 gérants des bibliothèques de FAVL ont été au GHANA pour une formation d’une semaine avec les collègues du GHANA .La formation a été donnée par KATHY KNOWLES.Après le retour du GHANA nous avons pu remarquer des changements considérables et positifs. On peut citer
_Le lavage des mains surtout des tous petits avant de consulter les livres ;
_L’enlèvement des chaussures à la porte avant d’entrer dans la bibliothèque ;
_Le regroupage des dessins en un cahier de dessin pour consultation par les visiteurs ;
_La couverture des livres par le plastique ;
_Coller bien les feuilles des livres endommagés ;
_ La connaissance et la vulgarisation des jeux de puzzles ;
_La lecture des livres par les adultes qui les désirent.
Face à tous ces changements nous remercions KATHY, FAVL pour l’organisation du voyage pour la formation et surtout la qualité que KATHY nous a permise d’acquérir.
Nous souhaitons de telles sorties pour nous former d’avantage.
Fait à BEREBA le 1O mai 2009

2. KOURA IVETTE
CHERE KATHY
J’ai l’honneur de vous adresser cette lettre pour vous remercier pour votre accueil lors de notre dernière visite à ACCRA en 2005 .Vous avez été très ouverte avec nous et ce que nous avons appris ont été appliqués aussi et nous avons vu le fruit que cela a apporté.
_Nous accueillons chaque jour dans notre bibliothèque à BEREBA au minimum 100 enfants ;
_Nous leur faisons des contes ,du dessin, chanter, jouer au puzzles, au waré,et de cartes ;
_Nous leur avons appris comment tourner les pages d’un livre, l’entretien pour ne pas déchirer, ni le salir ;
_Maintenant quand les enfants viennent à la bibliothèque avant d’entrer ils enlèvent les chaussures, lavent les mains avant de toucher aux livres. En 2008 nous avons fait un camp de lecture avec les enfants et pendant ce camp nous avons encore appliqué tous ce que nous avons appris chez vous.
_Notre bibliothèque est devenue l’ami des enfants.
Je vous remercie encore tout en vous demandant de continuer à nous appuyer pour le succès de ces bibliothèques et la réussite de nos enfants.
PAR KOURA IVETTE
GERANTE BIBLIOTHEQUE DE BEREBA

3. PEMOU LUCIE
A VOUS KATHY
Après notre visite au GHANA ,des changements ont été faits dans nos bibliothèques.
Tout d’abord merci à FAVL encore pour cette sortie.
De retour du GHANA ,une semaine après j’ai payé deux seaux pour le lavage des mains à la bibliothèque et jusqu’à présent les élèves quand ils arrivent se lavent les mains avant de toucher aux ouvrages.
Tout lecteur avant d’entrer pose les chaussures à la porte avant d’entrer et cette méthode est appliquée jusqu’aujourd’hui
Nous faisons des séances de dessins et affichons sur les tableaux pour encourager les enfants.
Je fais la lecture dirigée ainsi que les jeux que nous avons appris au GHANA sans oublier les PUZZLES.
Avec le plastique je peux couvrir les livres sans problèmes et je veille surtout à la propreté de la bibliothèque. La propreté des bibliothèques au GHANA m’a beaucoup marqué.
Dans l’ensemble nous avons retenu beaucoup de choses pendant notre visite au GHANA ,malgré qu’il y ait une différence entre nos bibliothèques nous essayons de faire la même chose.
Nous souhaitons avoir une sortie comme celle là.
Merci
PEMOU LUCIE
BIBLIOTHEQUE DE SARA

For all of :FAVL,OSU CHILDREN LIBRARIES FUND ,thank you for everything you’ve done .I really appreciate everything you’ve done .
THE CORDINATOR
KOURA DONKOUI

Calling all FAVLers...

Someone want to purchase these interesting sounding books and see if they would be appropriate and adaptable to programs in the village libraries we support? if so, contribute a blog entry!

BOOKS by Christy Hale

Art Activities For Little Learners: 15 Easy & Delightful Projects Using Everyday Materials (Scholastic Teaching Resources, 2004)

Quilting Activities for Young Learners: 15 Easy & Delightful "No-Sew" Projects That Reinforce Early Skills & Concepts (Scholastic Teaching Resources, 2005)

Collaborative Art & Writing Projects for Young Learners: 15 Delightful Projects That Build Early Reading and Writing Skills-and Connect to the Topics You Teach (Scholastic Teaching Resources, 2006)

Two new librarians join the FAVL team in Burkina Faso

Michael,
Nous avons fait le test se recrutement a DIMIKUY et BEREBA et les heureux candidats ont les noms suivants
DIMIKUY
KORBEOGO SALIMATA
BEREBA
KOURA ZOMIZOU
Donkoui

Did I mention that Donkoui, who is the regional coordinator, and also a teacher in primary school, ad 45 out of 47 students pass the CP exam out of elementary school... he's a real inspiration- very dedicated to teaching.

Under The Reading Tree And The Osu Children's Library Fund Collaborate With Favl To Support The Randa Farmers' Library

This is the welcome that FAVL Director Kate Parry received when she visited the village of Randa, in Bududa District of Eastern Uganda, in June 2009. Randa is up in the foothills of Mount Elgon, a beautiful place, but desperately poor. Early in 2009 one of the community's leaders, Moses Mukhobeh, wrote to FAVL, UTRT, and OCLF to ask for support for a library that the Randa United Farmers' Group had just set up. All agreed that Kate should visit and report back. She did so at the end of March 2009 and, as a result of her recommendations, OCLF agreed to donate a box of books and UTRT to pay for a part-time librarian and provide an additional book budget. On this visit in June Kate went to announce the news, to the great joy of everyone in the village. The salary will begin in July, administered by the Uganda Community Libraries Association coordinator, Grace Musoke, and the box of books will arrive in August, carried by Valeda Dent, who is coming to Uganda to do research at the Kitengesa Community Library. A wonderful result of successful networking!

Why doesn't FAVL...

In Burkina Faso...
Have all the librarians wear snazzy polo shirts, cleaned and pressed everyday, and upload the statistics from each days checkouts, visitors, events into a cell phone that uploads to a website, interfacing with an MIS system where library "friends" could then suggest books to young readers, and even get some feedback from them,... "I liked it! What else should I read?" and also make the library super modern and super clean, with formica countertops and air conditioning all solar powered and glass windows and bottled water in a little refrigerator.

Why instead, are the librarians from the village, usually pretty nervous about doing anything in public (like reading a storybook), more likely to scowl than to smile when a "client" enters the library (very typical Burkinabè "affect") and the library is made out of mud bricks and tin roof with a thatch paillote outside, and the record-keeping is in old notebooks and somewhat imperfect?

a) We don't have enough money to make it all "modern".
b) We hate the thought of a library "franchise" where we train the librarians, after having them go through rigorous selection process so that the smartest most motivated villagers are selected, to shout 'Welcome to the library, HOW MAY I HELP YOU" to every person who walks in the door.
c) We honestly never thought of making the library a kind of branded modern franchise thingy.
d) We knew if we went that route the board would never agree on whether the polo shirts should be red or yellow.
e) We thought villagers would make fun of the librarians behind their backs.
f) The villages don't have glass, refrigerators, bottled water, electricity, web access through their cellphones, etc.

Those of you who have traveled extensively in Africa know what I mean...

Dimikuy Library almost ready to open

Finally I got some pix, courtesy of FAVL volunteers Amy Reggio and Madelyn Bagby... the idea here was a smaller children's library, that would have more emphasis on outdoor reading. So the library building is smaller, and it features girl's and boy's latrines (so they painted them "men" and "women".... ) (and that is Dounko with a big smile). Separate latrines is a BIG DEAL... the first ever in the village. Also FIRST EVER is the tiling of the outdoor reading area. As you can see, they did it in classic "who's in charge" style- rows for the kids, and a special seat for the storyteller in front. Why not a circle, one might ask? What, am I an anthropologist? it is one of those deep mysteries, if you ask me. When I was once asking Donkoui about doing a circular "cours" (the wall around the library), he smiled and said, "Our local masons don't do circles, just straight lines." As you can see from the tiling work, this is a "new art" for local masons... they've literally never had any tile work in a village in the area. So this is a first, and we'll see whether it takes off and whether the artistry improves over the years.

Book inventories

FAVL volunteer Madelyn Bagby and FAVL regional coordinator Sanou Dounko have been doing inventories of the libraries. In general things are going well, but one library, Koumbia, had way too many lost and late books over the past five years. This library had been having some management problems, and is the furthest from our central "zone," so it is not surprising. The librarian has since been replaced with a new librarian. We will be keeping close watch. Note that the number for Karaba, 19 books lost, is the total lost over a five year period (i.e. since inception)... so about 3 books lost per year. Everything is tracked manually, and there are lots of occasions where a child might step out with a book without letting the librarian know. So that is very reasonable. But Koumbia was definitely a problem. They have not done the inventories for Bereba yet, and Boni and Dimikuy just opened.

Are you a FAVL or African village library promoter?

Consider spending $5 to buy a copy of Kathy Knowles latest book, Crocodile Bread, which FAVL translated into French and Jula for our libraries in Burkina Faso. (Or you can get an English-language version from Kathy's site).

The book makes a great prop when meeting someone that you want to talk to about FAVL and African village libraries, because it communicates easily three things:

1) We care immensely about literacy that is relevant to kids in villages- so we really try hard to have books that are developed for the African village audience, and much less attention is paid to shipping low priority book (my favorite example, bless them, is Berenstein Bears, which just don't travel well). We have several programs that we are developing to be producing even more books like these. We buy books in East Africa from Fountain Publishers and other local presses.

2) We partner with other library support orgs., e.g. Osu Children's Library Fund, African Library project, Under the Reading Tree, etc. We're "Friends", not jealous friends...

3) Kids in African villages love reading just as much as kids anywhere! It is hard to convey that in an office in New York, but when someone sees the books they immediately start smiling and thinking about a kid in a village reading...

UgCLA forms agreement with UTRT

UTRT (Under The Reading Tree) is an organization based in Vancouver that, like FAVL, promotes community libraries in Africa. It is already supporting three libraries in Uganda and is just about to take on a fourth. Also like FAVL, it is conscientious about keeping in touch with its libraries and making sure that the funding it provides is sensibly used. Two of UTRT’s directors, Nate Lepp and Jonathan Nikkel, were here in Uganda last April, and we at the Uganda Community Libraries Association spent a lot of time talking with them. The upshot was that UTRT asked us to help supervise their libraries, in return for their paying Grace Musoke, our coordinator, for two days’ work a week. UTRT has just formalized the deal, and we expect the first installment of funds early in July. We all win from this arrangement: Grace can at last earn a living wage since she will be working nearly full time; UTRT will get better reporting from its libraries; and the libraries will receive their funds more regularly and will have more advice and support. Even UgCLA’s other member libraries, though not directly supported by UTRT, will benefit. Grace will be able to do work for them in combination with her UTRT work, and we are already developing reporting instruments and mechanisms for UTRT libraries that can be extended to others. So thank you, Under The Reading Tree! And please visit their website at www.underthereadingtree.org.

The fourth library mentioned above is the Randa Farmers Library about which Mukhobeh Moses wrote to FAVL, as well as to UTRT and OCF, three or four months ago. I went to visit last April, as we all agreed I should, and recommended that OCF give it some books and UTRT some support for a librarian. The books will arrive in August when my friend Valeda has agreed to bring them, and our agreement with UTRT includes a part-time librarian’s salary for Randa. I’m going there tomorrow with Mukhobeh so will be able to give the farmers the glad news and hand over a children’s dictionary that I bought with the first installment of the book grant that UTRT has also budgeted for them. This is a terrific model, I think, of cooperation among organizations interested in libraries.

The weekend’s travelling will also include a visit to a school in Manafwa District, near the Kenya border, where the director, a friend of Mukhobeh’s, proposes to set up a library. Then I’ll visit the school in Bududa town where Emily Soeder, another person who’s been corresponding with FAVL, has also set up one. That’s a school rather than a community library, but we’ve been corresponding quite a bit since she’s been asking me for advice on library organization etc.. Unfortunately, she’s away this weekend, but I spoke to her on the phone, and she’s arranging for others to meet me. Then, on the way back, I’ll visit Busolwe, where the first library in our Library 2 Library scheme is located (it’s one of the two that Espen visited), and I will drop in on two of the recipients of our small grants – one, at Kamuli, because I’ve never been there, and the other, at Njeru, because it, alone of all the recipients, had not when last visited spent the grant as it was supposed to; I trust I’ll find that it has done so by now, since otherwise I will have to ask for the money back.

Update from Kate: I’ve just visited Busolwe, which is the first library (and the only one so far) in our Library 2 Library scheme. They received their grant at the beginning of this month and, as it happens, a group of volunteers from the University of British Columbia. The librarian and volunteers together are effecting a wonderful transformation in the place. They’ve opened up a new reading room and have decorated it with a beautiful mural; they’ve instituted a reading club; and they’re still taking books round to primary schools. Since the workshop that we had there last April primary school teachers have been coming much more often to the library – though the number of actual members (i.e. who’ve paid their subscription) remains small.

6. My UN friends are proposing an Event at the UN at the beginning of October on behalf of the Kitengesa Community Library. I’m hoping that it will raise enough to complete our building project. The computer centre and library room are now almost complete, with only windows and a ceiling to put in. Then we must buy the necessary solar equipment, most of which should be paid for by the grant that we expect any day now from the University of British Columbia’s Go Global Program. My friend Eric Morrow of the Maendeleo Foundation (www.maendeleo.org) hopes to be able to contribute some computers from the grant that he has got from Intel.

What kinds of books are stocked in the libraries in Burkina Faso?

We're trying to get away from Berenstein Bears... so not surprising that you've probably never heard of any of these that were a selection of books purchased for the Steve Cisler Memorial Library in Dimikuy, which is about to open sometime this month. We're waiting for the "tile"... yes, in a complete innovation for a village in Burkina, part of the outdoor reading area is going to have tiled benches... more confortable and durable and aesthetic than just plain cemented mud-brick benches... we saw a lot of tilework during our trip to Dakar last November, and Koura Donkoui, our local rep. southwestern Burkina, decided to give it a try... just one more little innovation... we'll see how it works!

Titre	Auteur
Le seigneur de la danse	Veronique Tadjo
Thieni Ghanani	CEDA
Fati n'est plus triste	EDICEF
La revanche de Sonko-le-lievre	EDICEF
Kayeli	Chantal Iritie Boan Lou
Mificao	Marie-Danielle Aka
Une cueillette ratee	O.J.R.Georges Bada
Mais qu'est-ce qu'il y a Dodo?	O.J.R.Georges Bada, Hector D. Sonon
Louty, l'enfant du village	Fatou Ndiaye Sow
Akissi reine d'une nuit	Annick Assemian
Bouh et la vache magique	Abdourahman A. Waberi, Pascale Bougeault
La carapace perdue	Assamala Amoi, Benjamin Kouadio Kouakou
Louba le petit footballeur	Sanodji Yombel Abiathar, Adi Moussa
Afi et le tambour magique	Thecla Midiohouan, Hector D. Sonon
Pourquoi je ne suis pas sur la photo?	Kidi Beby, Christian Kinge Epanya
Landisoa et les trois cailloux	Raharimanana, Jean A. Ravelona
Les jeunes detectives	Yaw Ababio Boateng
La hyene affamee	Stella Katengesya
Legendes africaines	Bernard B. Dadie
La potion magique	Inna Hampateba
La legende de sadjo	Isaie Biton Koulibaly
La belle tella	CEDA
Le garcon qui chevaucha un lion	James Ngumy
Sauvee par les animaux	Pere Castor Flammarion
L'ane au crottin d'or	Yves Pinguilly
Le Sida et autres affaires le concernant	CEDA
L'enfant et l'oeil du ciel	Ansomwin Ignace Hien
Les colombes de la paix	Ansomwin Ignace Hien
Lucy la grand-tante de l'humanite	Anne-Sophie Chilard, Claire Mobio
Le grand combat	Michael Cullup
Sarraounia la reine magicienne du Niger	Halima Hamdane, Isabelle Calin
Neka va au marche	Ifeoma Okoye
Kimboo contre la drogue	Liliana Lombardo, Kolo Toure, Basile Boli
Premiere rencontres avec Jesus	Irene Mieth
Le Club des Cinq en vacances	Enid Blyton
Princesse Zelina le rosier magique	Bruno Muscat, Edith
Karateka	Yves-Marie Clement
Un pantalon pour papa	Angela Shelf Medearis, John Ward
Conte de la marguerite	Beatrice Appia
Jack et le haricot magique	Marlene Jobert
La main sacree de metallica	Usinor Sacilor
Donito la sirene des caraibes	Conrad
Georges, ver de terre	Bruno Heitz
A la decouverte de l'anglais sur les traces de Timothy	J.C. Sentenac
Un jour dans la foret	Hemma
Le petit Dragon qui ne savait pas moucher	Odile Delattre, Benoit Rondia
Contes des peuples de l'U.R.S.S.	Robert Babloian

Anne-Reed - FAVL volunteer- explains some of her activities

It is a great presentation, but one little caveat- at one point she has a "speako" that the cost of printing books is 20 cents... it is more like $7 for each... with small print runs.

A library for Pobe Mengao, in Burkina Faso

Emilie Crofton, a dynamic Peace Corps volunteer in northern Burkina Faso, is working closely with the community of Pobe to get a library started. She's launched a blog and will be working with FAVL to get the library operational. The community already has a mueum (pictured) which is really neat. I can't wait to visit!

Here's how Emilie describes her work and the village:

My name is Emilie Crofton, from San Jose California. I am currently serving in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso. I am volunteering as a Girls Education and Empowerment volunteer in the village of Pobe Mengao, located in the Soum province about 25k south of Djibo. The commune of Pobe Mengao has roughly 6,000 people. There is a local health clinic, primary, secondary and Franco-Arab school. Pobe's population is made up of Mossi, Peul and Korumba ethnicities. The Korumbas speak Korumfe, a local language that is slowly dying off and the village is fighting to keep alive. In 2004 a German NGO helped create a small museum in the village to help preserve the Korumba culture.

What to do in summer reading camp? Collage!

Sare Elisee worked with some kids in Sumbrungu library, Ghana how to do it when he was there last May. He called the picture "fly eagle fly" and it's what we want kids to do!

News from Uganda

Kate Parry writes:

Some good news. I’ve recently met two young men who have already launched library projects. The first is David Ssemwogerere, who heard about us through Mukhobeh Moses of the Randa Farmers Library. He runs an NGO called D+ (Development Plus) Uganda, which has teamed up with an Australian group called HUG (Help Us Grow -- www.hug.or.au) to establish the Suubi Community Centre, which does all sorts of things but includes a library, at Lubanda village in Kisekka sub-county in Masaka District (one of my relatives lives in that sub-county). The second is Simon Mugabi, a friend of David’s, who is working for Unicef at present in Kenya but is coming home at the end of this year and is well ahead with plans for establishing a Community Empowerment and Development Centre (including a library) at Lwampanga trading centre in Nakasongola District. He, too, has support from abroad – in this case from an American woman named Lori Peacock, who has set up a not-for-profit called Nziza (www.nziza.org) to work in Rwanda and Uganda. Both of them are eager to join UgCLA and have already paid their subscriptions! I’ve sent David the application form and will send Simon his now. I’ve also been in correspondence with Helen Brown, or HUG and hope to meet her when she comes to Uganda next month; and I will write to Lori Peacock to suggest she work with both FAVL and Ready to Read, which is the organization set up by my friend who’s working on libraries in Rwanda. Both David and Simon seem to be very able and experienced and will I’m sure be good contacts for us, as Board members, perhaps, in future, and as facilitators of workshops. So, Grace, expect their application forms, and remind me to give you the 40,000/=.

Simon’s CEDC is library member number 28, Ggaba is still in line to join (Mary is just raising the money from library subscriptions), and we still have all those libraries in Toro lining up (I’ll be writing to them soon). So I’m sure we will have more than 30 libraries by the end of the year.