(21 Oct 2020) Following a period of voluntary work in the mountain region of Rasuwa in Nepal, a new library for children has now opened.
This was of one of the worst hit areas of the 2015 earthquake in what remains one of the world’s poorest countries. Apart from natural disasters and remoteness, illiteracy and limited access to information keep rural communities in poverty. Books are both a rarity and a luxury in Nepal and in rural areas libraries are almost unheard of.
Books4Nepal was established in 2018 by Andrea and Mario Marini to build and run the very first library/ resource centre in the whole region to supply both Nepali and English reading and textbooks to schools.
The library opened earlier this year, hiring a local trainee librarian. There are currently over 3,000 children’s books in English (second hand donated books shipped from the UK) but only 500 in Nepalese language as these could only be bought new. The large travel agency Worldwide Expeditions has agreed to promote the project with all their travellers going to Nepal, once borders reopen, to ensure a constant flow of English books in the future.
Designing Libraries has the full story here.
