ACKU ABLE Box Libraries

Making the Right to Read a Reality in Afghanistan

Literacy thrives most when learners have access to reading material. Yet, schools lack even textbooks and rarely have anything resembling a school library. The public library system in the country has been decimated, and most books found in Afghanistan are imported. We have been working to provide access to books in conjunction with literacy classes in communities that have requested our support to establish village library & literacy centres.

CW4WAfghan has partnered with the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University (ACKU), supported by the Louis and Nancy Hatch Dupree Foundation, to provide small local language libraries to several schools and project partners.

 About the ACKU: The Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University is proud to be involved in the nation’s noteworthy goals. Established in Peshawar Pakistan in 1989, the Centre was shifted to Kabul University in 2006 where it occupies temporary space in the Central Library at Kabul University. The Centre is regarded as the richest source of information in the region. The Centre’s overall purpose is to enhance nation building by providing reliable information to policy planners, strategy makers, program implementers and future leaders of Afghanistan, including the faculty and students at Kabul University. There is also an outreach component, which sends mobile libraries into the provinces to communities, high schools and provincial councils. The purpose of this programme is to provide information to the Afghan population to enable them to learn to read; and live happier lives. [From the ACKU website].

The ACKU works with Afghan professors to write, illustrate and publish high quality books for new readers on a variety of topics, from animal husbandry to history to poetry. These books are in Dari and Pashto and are printed in Afghanistan. This is unique in a country largely lacking a local publishing industry, and where access to reading material is extremely limited, especially in rural areas. CW4WAfghan purchases the Box Libraries from the ACKU to equip schools with their first library, as well as the village library and literacy centres that we support. It costs us $750 for a small library of 250 books and $1500 for a large library of 500 books. Both libraries are mobile and come with shelves on wheels.

CW4WAfghan has fundraised for and provided Able Box Libraries to the following institutions in Afghanistan:

- In the Dara Valley, six Village Library and Literacy Centres will receive small libraries
- One large set for the Girls Detention Center in Kabul, through our partner medica mondiale Afghanistan
- One large set for a widow's literacy centre in Kabul, through our partner medica mondiale Afghanista
- One large set to women's literacy classes in Bamiyan run by PARSA
- One large set for the women's library at the Chilsitoon Women's Centre, run by AWRC
- One small set is kept in the CW4WAfghan Country Office for the use of Teacher Trainers and staff
- One small set for the children's centre managed by Women for Afghan Women in Kabul
- One small set was provided to the Fatema-tul Zahra School in Kabul, run by AAWC
- Fifteen libraries were distributed to public schools in the districts of Qarabagh and Istalif in Kabul province, as part of CW4WAfghan’s in-service teacher training program in which these schools participated.
- In the districts of Mirbachakot, Bagrami and Kalakan in Kabul province, where we’ve trained in-service teachers, todate we have equipped 84 schools with large libraries.

Total number of Able Box and other Libraries distributed in Afghanistan = 112 (as of Sept 2011)

Download more details on the Able Box Libraries below.