Ethiopian Review

EXAMINER-Imagine a life without the imagination of the printed page. Imagine a life without libraries in dusty African villages. Imagine the soaring imagination of two librarians who decided to solve this problem with the help of donkeys.

Next week school children around the United States will participate in fundraising events to help pay for mobile donkey libraries and other projects to improve literacy for children in Ethiopia. They will do this by participating in the first annual Ethiopia Reads Book Week U.S.A., which is supported by Scholastic Literacy Partnerships in conjunction with the organization Ethiopia READS.

You can enjoy presentations by Ethiopian dancers and storytellers today during the kickoff of Ethiopia Reads Book Week at Aurora’s Central Library, 11 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. You can also meet a donkey and see a replica of a book mobile cart.

Fifty years ago, when librarian Yohannes Gebregeorgis was learning how to read from Peace Corps volunteers in his Ethiopian village, he probably would never have imagined such an event. After all, the only reading materials available were the textbooks at school.

He also probably never imagined that he would establish a publishing company—Ethiopian Books for Children and Educational Foundation—or become a children’s author or be named one of CNN’s Top Heroes of 2008 for “championing children.”

(Ethioplanet)