By Amna Hassan | Programmes Manager
The Alif Laila Book Bus Society (ALBBS), a not for profit organisation has been working to enhance reading skills and promote a love of books amongst children in Pakistan for the past four decades. In October 2020 it added the Book Bike to its family of innovative libraries.
This eco friendly mobile library has been visiting four communities in Lahore, with its collection of 500 books for primary school goers.
This library was started as an immediate response to the pandemic and school closure. Children found themselves at home with almost nothing enjoyable to read and very little learning too. Alif Laila used a portion of a grant from the People’s Republic of China’s Embassy in Islamabad to purchase a bike used to sell ice cream and convert it into a bike that brought books.
The Book Bike provided children with much needed story books and DIY videos on things they could make themselves; science, astronomy, electronics, art and craft information and projects.
This Bike Library has only received positive feedback from the children and their mothers who claim that this is a great initiative that allows them to engage with books even in the lockdown. Children especially enjoyed sitting on the bike and watching educational videos on the screen installed.
The children’s comments:
Sughra: When I sit on the seat of the bike I pretend I am the bringer of books to my community. When the bike goes away, my friends and myself talk about the stories we read.
Asma: What fun it is when stories and videos come from far away lands to change lives in communities such as ours.
Khalid: The Book Bike is here. Wait I’m coming!!! Where is my mask?
Rahema: When I saw the night sky on video I realised I wanted to learn more about it. I’m going to read more books now.
Farhan: I will learn how to make a robot from waste material. I loved the video I saw today.
The Book Bike will continue to visit children in communities and schools too, now that they are open. It was a great favourite at the Children’s Literature Festival held in Lahore on 8th, 9th, 10th February. Children from many of Lahore’s Government Schools saw and loved it.
Pictures of the Book Bike can be viewed in the document attached.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
