They pack up the mules and head to the remote areas of the country bringing books to the kids and adults. James Ingram of the BBC accompanies one such trek and recounts his experience in his piece Venezula’s four-legged mobile libraries.
They project was started by the University of Momboy, a small school that “prides itself on its community-based initiatives.”
“Spreading the joy of reading is our main aim” says Christina Vieras one of the project’s leaders “But it’s more than that. We’re helping educate people about other important things like the environment. All the children are planting trees. Anything to improve the quality of life and connect these communities.”
“The book mules are becoming cyber mules and cine mules” as well as they now pack a laptop and a projector to take advantage of the limited mobile phone signal that is now available in these remote areas .
In addition to providing reading material the book mule team play games with the kids and reads them stories.
“The children are really motivated to read and we are too. A lot of the adults are reading more. It’s great that they come up here.” says Javier Sulveran
The university just added another mule to the program which they will keep at one of the villages so that “The mule will be able to get further into the mountains and spread the word to more villages that so far remain too remote.”
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Photo from the BBC article