Ethiopia Reads

According to the organisers, education is the key to improving the lives of the next generation of Ethiopians, and reading helps to foster a love of learning. Ethiopia Reads engages in the following programmes in an effort to achieve its goals:

• Shola's Children's Library: Opened in 2003, this library project serves children between the ages of four and 18. It opens six days a week and houses more than 20,000 books. Shola allows children to read books, study, and learn. According to organisers, girls continue to have a strong presence at Shola, accounting for more than 42% of visitors.
• Schools Library Development Programme: Ethiopia Reads works with public schools to create libraries for children. These libraries are a resource for tens of thousands of children, as well as hundreds of teachers and school directors. Ethiopia Reads provides each partner school with furniture, books, and educational materials as well as training in literacy and librarianship.
• Publishing Programme: This programme publishes multi-lingual books for children in English as well as Ethiopian languages.
• Training Programme: Ethiopia Reads helps teachers and librarians to understand and work with books in a way that encourages learning. The project also provides workshops in librarianship and library development.

Other initiatives include:

• Donkey Mobile Libraries;
• Ethiopian Children Book Week, a spring literacy festival for children;
• The Golden Kuraz Award, which recognises outstanding achievements in Ethiopian literature for children;
• The Awassa Reading Centre, a free public library for children;
• The Saturday Sanitation Programme, which teaches children the basis of health and hygiene;and
• The Library and Literacy skills Training Programme.

Education, Children.

According to the organisers, Ethiopia has rich cultural and historical resources, such as oral storytelling, as well as a very ancient history and a written culture. However, there are few children's books reflecting Ethiopian heritage. Many children never read a book except schoolbooks and there are no storybooks or picture books in Ethiopian homes for young readers. Organisers state that it is well documented that children who read books develop analytical skills, insight, and become thinkers who are capable of producing new ideas.

Ethiopia Reads began when founder Gebregeorgis Yohannes wrote down a favourite story from his youth, Kilu Mammo (Silly Mammo) in English and Amharic and hired an Ethiopian artist to illustrate it. The funds raised from the proceeds of the book were used to build Ethiopia Reads’ first library.