Books for Africa

We all remember "Do They Know It's Christmas?", the original, high-profile, fundraising appeal. And who can forget the passionate calls for support from Bob Geldof? It moved us all to do something about the plight of Ethiopian famine victims. The single sold three million copies in the UK, and became the fastest selling record of all time. Worldwide sales generated £8m for the relief effort.

Now, 18 years after Band Aid, many regions of Ethiopia once again face famine, and we are being asked to dig deep to solve the crisis. But this is just the first step. If the tragedy is not to carry on repeating itself, a longer-term solution is required other than food aid: funds must be raised to support investment in agricultural projects, in the country's infrastructure, and last, but by no means least, in improving education.

Education is vital to the future of Ethiopia. Literacy is a basic prerequisite to enable people to participate in society. Skills learnt through formal or informal education open up a broader range of employment options and reduce vulnerability to poverty. And at the heart of the need for education are books, the essential tools for learners of all ages.

At present, only a minority of Ethiopian children of primary school age receive an education and, at just 36%, literacy levels are a great deal lower than those of most African nations. Yet Ethiopia has a rich and interesting culture, with a history of literature and manuscript production in the Gee'z alphabet dating back more than 3,000 years.

With its population of 61 million, 64% of whom have to survive on less than $1 a day, Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. It will come as no surprise to booksellers and publishers in the UK that the Ethiopian book trade is still in its infancy. There are just four local publishers, each producing no more than a handful of new titles each year.

Only a small number of people can afford to own books, but there is nevertheless a huge demand from readers throughout the country. Book Aid International (BAI) provides about 50,000 books every year through its Ethiopia programme, and these are distributed to a wide range of organisations.

Working locally

An important part of BAI's work in Ethiopia is in supporting the work of regional development associations in Amhara, Tigrai and Oromo. These are community organisations with a focus on education, health and vocational training.

They operate on the principle that people are not merely recipients of aid, but active participants who contribute cash, materials and labour. At the heart of the development associations' work is a commitment to involving local people in the design and running of their projects. Community members are asked for their opinions about the proposed services and about what will work best to lessen poverty in their particular area.

The books BAI sends to the associations are read and shared by local, predominantly rural people. They help develop skills and support reading for study and pleasure. Books will reach primary and secondary schools, universities, vocational colleges and the networks of libraries that the associations run.

The Tigrai Development Association (TDA), which serves a region covering 80,000 sq kilometres, is home to 3.5 million people. TDA was established in 1989 to improve the living standards of local people; it is supported by 70,000 members who each contribute between 7p and £30 a month.

At the beginning of the 1990s, after decades of conflict, primary school enrolment in Tigrai was far below the national average of 30%. Since then, the TDA has built and furnished 82 primary schools and developed a range of education programmes to reach those people who are not able to attend schools. The TDA is also active in building and refurbishing public libraries, which serve more than 140,000 readers. "It has become a tradition for students to sit outside the library building on stones around the fences and under the shade to wait their turn to get into the building to read," says Mr Asmelash Assefa of the TDA.

Ethiopia is just one of 40 countries in which Book Aid International is working to boost education, training and publishing.

BAI feels it is particularly important to contribute to a long-term solution to local book shortages. We are endeavouring to strengthen local book trades so that affordable and culturally relevant books are made available. One important area of need is support for professional development in the book business. So we have been providing books and other training materials covering the whole process, from writing and desktop publishing, to bookselling promotions.

There is also a great deal of work to be done to push books up the political agenda. At grassroots level, BAI is helping to promote reading and to establish a reading culture. At policy level, it is working with local partners to form alliances to lobby for national book policies and for the provision of adequate resources for book buying.

A positive step has been recognition from the international community that education is fundamental to reducing poverty. In 2000 a Unesco-sponsored international education forum set global goals for school enrolment and literacy, with the ambitious target of universal primary education by 2015.

Ugandan success story

A notable success story is Uganda, which recently achieved universal primary education with a phenomenal growth in enrolments from 2.5 million to 6.5 million in just four years.

But the day-to-day reality of such policies is often huge class sizes and vastly overstretched resources. In Uganda, classes can have as many as 100 pupils per teacher; the national average is one textbook for every seven pupils. The government recognises the need for textbooks and has set a target for textbook provision, but it is still a long way from achieving its goal.

It is a shame that hardly any funding is available for supplementary texts, which are vital to get children into the habit of reading. Indeed, many children who have received a primary education are still barely literate. The Uganda National Exam Board recently revealed the results of a literacy test taken by children in their final year of primary school—just 13% of students had passed.

All parts of the book chain need to work together to win recognition at government level for the importance of books. To this end, Book Aid International held a workshop in Uganda in 2002, which brought together librarians, booksellers and publishers from Ghana, Zambia and Uganda to find new ways to push for better investment in books and libraries.

Promotion of reading was high on the agenda at the workshop. Librarians, booksellers, teachers and parents all have important roles to play in coaching young readers, so that reading and comprehension skills are firmly embedded and will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

World Book Day tie-in

To kick-start Book Aid International's work in the field of reading promotion we are holding an event on World Book Day—"Reading Around the World"—which will involve children in 10 developing countries and groups in 10 libraries across the UK. Each participating library will receive a set of 20 to 30 copies of A Life Like Mine, published by Dorling Kindersley and Unicef. DK is donating 500 copies to the project, which is funded by Pearson.

A Life Like Mine, which celebrates the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, vividly brings to life the daily routines and aspirations of 19 children from around the world, and is packed with colour photos, quotes and information on topics ranging from survival to development, protection to participation. The book has received a lot of coverage in the UK, because it is appropriate for the new Global Citizenship curriculum.

An important part of the "Reading Around the World" project will be the sharing of experiences between children in the participating countries. Each UK library will be twinned with a library overseas, and the children will swap letters and pictures about their favourite books and why they value reading.

One of the first applications to come through has been from Malawi. The library service there has planned an event to be hosted by popular local comedians Jacob and Isaac. The event will take place at the SOS Children's Village in Lilongwe for a group of 20 orphaned children, and will be twinned in the UK with the Centre for the Child in Birmingham.

Libraries will not be the only participants in BAI activities on World Book Day. With sponsorship from Pearson Education we have produced a resource poster that has gone out to every UK school, as part of the World Book Day schools pack, so that children across the UK can find out more about development issues.

Many children in the UK enjoy fundraising to support BAI's work. Last year 500 schools took part and raised £47,000. This year we are hoping that donations from the book trade and from schools will allow us to make a big contribution towards a brighter future for Ethiopia and other African nations.

There is still a long way to go for countries such as Ethiopia. But we can learn a lot from the ethos of the local development associations. Even though many of their members can afford only a very small contribution, a lot of seven pences can go a long way when everyone is working together.



Nicola Cadbury is head of public relations and fundraiser at Book Aid International.