Friends of African Village Libraries
FAVL's goal is to assist the rural poor of Africa with the creation of village libraries. This is accomplished by working closely with the communities in which the libraries are established. FAVL refurbishes community-donated buildings, transforming them into a space to read and study. Libraries are stocked with books by local authors and in local languages to the greatest extent possible, and with a recent initiative FAVL is producing microbooks for village libraries, in partnership with fastpencil.com. In addition, FAVL sponsors librarian training and provides for librarian salaries, thereby empowering locals with skilled employment.FAVL has established and continues to support fifteen libraries: ten in Burkina Faso, three in Ghana, one in Tanzania, and one in Uganda.
FAVL is all about long-term commitments of support to ensure that libraries are not only established, but that they thrive. Village libraries are established if a donor is willing to make a long-term commitment to support a library. A simple building, or site, for the library is donated by the communities that will be served. Five thousand dollars then enables FAVL to help the village refurbish the building, hire a librarian and stock it with 1,000+ books suitable for pre-school through adults. Once launched, operating expenses are typically $2,000 a year. The typical library has a reading room and office for the librarian.
Over a three year period through 2010, St. Jude's provided $10,000 to Friends of African Village Libraries to underwrite the development and launch of a community library in Boni, Burkina Faso. St. Jude's support also underwrites the operating expenses of the library through 2013. This exemplary, yet small program, St. Jude's to able to make a profound difference in the lives of young and old, men and women in this rural African community.
St. Jude's support for FAVL helps to directly address two of the eight Millennium Development Goals that are designed to end extreme poverty by 2015:
- Goal #2 Universal Education
- Goal #3 Gender Equity