Ethiopia Reads

Programs: Fiscal year 2017 was a time of consolidation for ethiopia reads (er). No new libraries were opened, but strengthened the programs in existing libraries, especially the gebeta community children's library within the er office compound, serving 100 early grades children in the kebena district of addis ababa. Er focused on recruitment of children and families there, investing in outreach, expanding the collection, and on piloting family literacy. Er planned new library projects for the coming fiscal year, including potential builds in wolega, tigray and lalibela, and including new libraries in addis ababa and southern ethiopia, each serving approximately 2,000 primary and/or secondary students. Er launched an urban mobile library support and training program in addis ababa, serving the sub-city of addis ketema by first mapping all reading spaces and then providing support services on a circuit basis. Its reach this year could amount to 5,000 readers. This approach complements the organization's deep rural mobile library outreach, called horse-powered literacy (hpl), in the regions near chancho in oromiya and near kololo in kembata-tembaro. Er added two more hpl programs in southern ethiopia, providing story-telling and basic literacy in villages with least access to books. Each hpl project serves 100-400 children. This year saw continued design work on the book-centered learning (bcl) training and advocacy program, and its initial baseline measurement in anticipation of program launch in the future. Er continues to operate four school programs, one in the oromiya region and three in the kembata-tembaro region, each serving 200-250 children. Volunteers continued to collect books and fundraise to send a container of english-language books to support the children's library collections. The organization implemented a second phase of a project among the athletes of team tesfa called women athletes for literacy and learning, in which athletes were placed in school libraries to mentor children and be mentored by education professionals. Er also piloted a computer training program among women athletes. Team programs reach a total of 30-50 athletes.