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Reading
Books by Elephant – Thailand
The government has began a literacy program to bring books to remote villages in the jungle, where most residents can not read. Transportation is difficult in these areas so they use elephants to bring books to those living in the hard-to-reach mountain regions of Thailand.
Elephants are used in these areas to plow fields and carry logs and crops. More than twenty elephants in Omkoi are now used to carry books on a twenty day journey. The Books-by-Elephant delivery program travels to seven or eight villages and spend a few days at each village. They serve thirty-seven villages, providing reading materials for almost two thousand people in this region. These elephants carry more than just books to these villages. They also carry metal slates that are used to teach Thai children how to write and read. Along with the elephants, there are two-personal teams carrying books to another sixteen villages, bring learning materials to an additional six hundred people.
There is also a train in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, called Hong Rotfai Yoawachon, meaning “Library Train for Young People”. These trains serve the homeless children in Bangkok. They were refurbished by the Railway Police Division when they realized that homeless children needed a safe place. They turned the railway cars into a library and a classroom where the children learn to read and write.
How do We get our Books?
Blue Truck – Azerbaijan
This library-in-a-truck brings books to the children in the Kelenterli refugee settlement. The truck is brought in by Relief International, an organization that brings relief to victims of natural disaster. These children live in poverty, but the blue library truck brings happiness and curiosity to children who usually don’t have much to look forward to.
The library-in-a-truck has been coming to this area for several years and is designed to bring a wide variety of books to young people. They have two library trucks that serve over sixteen hundred students in twenty-three refugee schools.
Their goal is for the children in these settlements to have a few hours each week when they can borrow books. They feel they are part of a new generation growing up in new Azerbaijan. There are not enough trucks to bring books to children in other areas of the country but Relief International is working on changing this. One librarian says “For us, the mobile library is as important as air or water.”
Writing / Books
Southeast Asian Children’s Books
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