Director, West Africa, Friends of African Village Libraries (FAVL), San Jose, CA

Abstract

Friends of African Village Libraries (FAVL) were founded with the belief that every child and adult should have the opportunity to pick up a book and read. FAVL is dedicated to increasing access to reading material and other information in rural villages in sub-Saharan Africa. The mission of FAVL is to support community libraries in Africa. Community libraries are open to the public and operate on a non-profit basis that have been initiated or are currently operated as public libraries by various entities, whether local community groups, international non-governmental organisations or government structures. FAVL is dedicated to increasing access to reading materials and other information in rural villages in sub-Saharan Africa. FAVL has been working for more than a decade to integrate the Burkina Faso and Ghana libraries into their respective national library networks. FAVL has organised periodic summer reading camps in many of the villages where libraries are established.