By Christin Fynewever | Examiner.com
Ethiopia — What do you get when you cross a donkey and a book? A mobile library! Yes, thanks to Liberian Yohannes Gebregeorgis, tens of thousands of Ethiopian children have learned to read.
Gebregiorgis, a native of Ethiopia, was taught to read by Peace Corps volunteers in his village. He was inspired to create the program Ethiopia reads while working as a children’s librarian in the San Francisco Public Library.
Gebergiorgis became cognizant of the importance of a good education after securing an education himself, and wanted the children in his native country to embrace the love of reading. He came up with the idea of a mobile library, that would deliver books to the different villages throughout Ethiopia. His program would help many Ethiopian children gain access to literature.
Together with author Jane Kurtz, they established the Shola Children’s Library, which has served thousands of children, connecting them to a wide range of educational programs like art, dance, sanitation and more.
In honor of literacy and Yohannes Gebregiorgis’s remarkable program, the Aurora Central Library will host a celebration on May 9th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be dancing, and you guessed it donkeys! So come celebrate a noble program and get down with the donkeys
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FORUM | 2 Comments
Thanks for the effort! Please review Dr. Messay Kebede’s book entitled, “Radicalism and Cultural Dislocation in Ethiopia.” Reading should not only be for the sake of reading but to transmit Ethiopia’s history, mores, language, values, etc. If our children are not aware of their culture, I am afraid we will be sustaining the cultural dislocation, which could lead into creation of what I call Americo-Ethiopians British-Ethiopians or Franco Ethiopians. Do you know that Africa is loosing to Western Europe and America 22 thousand professionals annually and more than 70 percent of this group originates from Ethiopia? Please use as many Ethiopian books as you can in your mobile library.
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April 28th, 2009 at 11:43 AM
we all appreciate Mr.Gebregiorgis hard work to help our Ethiopian Children. He gave his time, energy as well as his life to give them a lives.
In perfect world, life suppose to be for peaceful mission as well as resolution. His determination was very amazing and his message was concreted and sold when he gave speech on the CNN heroes award, that he said they are our FUTURE, Tomorrows Leaders. Abslutely, it was very true and very touchy. Most of just focus on our personal life and ignore about the rest of our people. But he drop everything from Luxury Life to remot area to help those little beautiful kids means a lot to us.
Once again, thank you so much Yohannes for doing this unforgetful History and ofcourse you are one of the true hero. Please, keep upon this adventure and we will contacting you for further various reasons.
Thank you so much for Colorado Library for organzing the events to honor Mr. Gebregiorgis.
Best wishes
[Reply]
May 3rd, 2009 at 4:16 PM