Biblio BusThough traditionally an oral culture reading is increasingly on the rise in Rwanda and it is not an easy task providing access to reading material to its people. The cost of books and newspapers remain outside the reach of most Rwandans.
The Biblio Bus is one of the 3B’s. A project instituted by a group called Ishyo. The bus carries 4000 books in 3 different languages, Kinyarwanda, English and French, and is decorated by local artists.
Currently the Biblio Bus visits schools and prisons only with the hope of eventually providing service to individuals.
Students can borrow books for up to a month they also have to pick their favorite book and produce a creative work based on it. The children can create a theater adoption, a poem, a painting or drawing and a book with a selection of these works will eventually be published and distributed to all schools.
Beside the Biblio Bus the 2 other B’s of the program are:
“The Baracomandos, a group of actors performing short plays based on various books and poems. The third ‘B’ is BA-B’art, a manifestation where artists will be performing in bars and restaurants with the aim of reviving the pleasure of reading in both children and adults, while giving the audience a chance to interact with the artists.”
Sarah Vanden Abeele the project coordinator “insists that a book, besides being a mine of information, also helps one relax and forget about everyday life. She adds that books give a different perspective on life and people, especially teenagers, get a better understanding of what they are going through.”
In the last 5 years the budget for the National Library has gone from 8 million francs to over 100 million francs. It will be imperative for the Library system and programs like the 3B’s to flourish so that literacy does not remain a perk of the wealthy.
Article on the Rwandan new site Focus Online, The Library Comes to the People
Image above is a poster for the Biblio Brousse (site in french) project. A similar project that serves other African nations. The artist is Ako and the scene is from Burkina Faso.