Recently in FAVL Category

The Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), France's national library, has an entire department dedicated to children's literature: Centre national de la literature pour la jeunesse--La Joie par les livres). Viviana Quiñones, who works in its international section, very warmly welcomed us. First we had a nice exchange of the work of FAVL and BnF, then she gave us a detailed tour of the building (complete with an exclusive view of Paris from the 18th floor), the children's section, how to access BnF info via the web, plus a free entry into the temporary exposition "Gallimard (1911-2011) un siècle d'édition". It was an incredible visit and Viviana was so kind and welcoming. The fact that she gave more than 15 new children's lit books by different African authors for us to bring back was just the cherry on the pie.

Happy runners :)

and happy walkers! ;
Em handing 6K champ Ronald his prize



This morning FAVL organized its first annual Race for Reading. Overall, it went well.
We were nervous about how it would go considering the massive demonstrations held yesterday just a few streets away. The race was supposed to start at 8 am. but by 7:50 only three people had signed up. The U.S embassy truly saved the day, however, when at 8 a large van pulled up with a dozen embassy workers. A few more participants trickled in and the race began at 8:15 with a total of 25 participants.

It's hot season in Burkina, so we made sure to have three stands with ice cold water and bananas. It was definitely a jovial, non-competitive atmosphere with participants of all ages running and walking. We also had a small table set up to showcase and publicize FAVL. At the end we handed out prizes (certificates to restaurants, hotel pools, etc) to the 1st 6K finisher, 1st 3K finisher and the 1st youth to finish.
We only made about $100 from the race, but considering we just spent $10 to organize it, we still made a nice profit. The money, in addition to funds we receive from tonight's Jungle Party, will go toward all nine FAVL libraries in Burkina Faso.

We were a little disappointed, as we were hoping to have 50 to 100 runners. We were at the park by 6:30 to set up and saw nearly 50 people going in and out of the park to do their morning exercise, people who were clearly not too interested in the race. While we highly publicized the event via internet and posted race flyers at the park, we unfortunately attracted few Burkinabe. (Though a big thanks to Elisee's friend Jaques and Peace Corps staff member Diallo for participating!) A couple expats even suggested that we should increase the registration fee, but we're determined to keep it at 1,000 cfa to enable everyone to participate.

So overall, pretty good. After the race everyone felt tired but good and participants thanked us for organizing the event, saying they would definitely participate in any future Race for Reading. An embassy staff member who works as their communications person said she'd help us publicize any upcoming FAVL events.

This is definitely something we will do again and in fact we are already thinking of organizing the 2nd Race for Reading come September/October, when the RWA group is here. The day is still not done...tonight is the Jungle Party, which should be a fun and laid back event that will hopefully bring in some more funds for FAVL.

SANOU Dounko, FAVL's regional activities coordinator, has just returned from the Pobé-Mengao Library, where he spent two weeks training Béléhédé's future librarian. A detailed report will follow shortly but here is a quick account of his time in Pobé:

Du  25  mars  au  10  février  2011  j'ai séjourné  à Pobé-Mengao  pour former  KOUNDABA Alou, futur  bibliothécaire  de Béléhédé,  et pour  renforcer  les capacités d'animations de celui de Pobé-Mengao .  « La formation  s'est  très bien  passé, »  a dit le bibliothécaire de Béléhédé à la fin  de la formation. Il est satisfait et  reconnait avoir reçu toutes les notes nécessaires  pour gérer et animer sa bibliothèque.  Quant à KONFE Hamidou,  bibliothécaire de Pobé, il reconnait avoir reçu un acquis complémentaire.  

C'est avec  un regret que j'ai quitté la localité pour des raisons de services dans  la zone du Tuy.  Les lecteurs qui étaient  en ambiance  permanent, ne voulaient pas que  je les laisse. Il faut  noter que pour ma part,  j'ai été bien  reçu par la communauté, le gérant  et les lecteurs.  Entre nous bibliothécaires nous avons échangé  sur d'autres  sujets, sur nos coutumes et nos communautés  respective dans  une ambiance de parfaite convivialité, pendant nos heures de repos.

From March 25th to February 10th 2011, I stayed in Pobé-Mengao to train KOUNDABA Alou, Béléhédé's future librarian, and to help improve the Pobé librarian's skills organizing and running library activities. "The training went very well," said Béléhédé's librarian. He is satisfied and acknowledges having received all the necessary training to manage and run his library. As for Hamidou, Pobé's librarian, he says that he has acquired many new skills.

It is with much regret that I left the village of Pobé to return to my post in the Tuy Province. Readers who participated in the library activities did not want me to leave. Note that for my part, I was well received by the community, the librarian and library visitors. Between the librarians we discussed several subjects, our respective customs and communities, in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere  during our hours of rest.

                  

This week has been incredibly busy in preparations for tomorrow's fundraiser double-whammy: Race for Reading in the morning followed by Jungle Party in the evening.

It seems we've had a lot against us. Sponsorships fell through so Race for Reading is being organized on a very tight budget. Despite all the recent news, the past few days have seemed relatively quiet here in Ouaga. Though today, students are expected to lead a mass demonstration. Unfortunately this has led to PC putting all volunteers on a temporary Stand-fast, meaning they cannot travel. So, volunteers who were planning on coming to participate in the race can no longer attend. In the meantime Charley and I have been running around like crazy to get different restaurants, hotels and stores to offer prizes for race winners and Jungle Party raffle winners.

Having said all this, we are really excited for tomorrow. We're expecting a good turnout and hopefully, if the race proves a success, we hope to make it an annual event.

Yesterday we had our second meeting with the northern librarians at the CELPAC in Ouahigouya (a library), where they kindly let us run our meetings without cost. Elisée gave the director two of the "Pain Crocodile" books for the library, as a token of FAVL's appreciation.

All three of the northern librarians are still relatively new and their excitement, enthusiasm and motivation are quite contagious. Like the first meeting, yesterday's meeting was lively, with the librarians actively participating and offering up plenty of ideas and opinions.

Summary of what we discussed::

1)    Béléhédé library
    - Construction going well; furniture currently being built
    - Discussed importance of Alou (future librarian) meeting with both the library committee and community members after the his 2 week training with Dounko at the Pobé library to keep everyone up to date with library progress
2)    Responsibilities of FAVL librarians
    - Respect library operation hours and respect readers; keep library clean, welcoming and well organized
3)    Best way to send librarians' salaries up north
4)    Organization of Mayor's workshop in May
    - Discussed option of having two workshops, one in Houndé one in Ouahigouya, to minimize travel/expenses
5)    Meetings up north
    - Option of having all northern librarians come down to Hounde two or three times a year to participate in monthly meetings
6)    Exchange of activities/experiences in each library.
    - Dounko told us how successful the ABC hopscotch activity is at the libraries. Young children use hopscotch to learn the letters of the alphabet and words that start with each letter.
    - Importance of not only doing story telling or drawing but trying out new activities
7)    Librarians' Book Club
    - Passed out the book of fables "La brousse et la savane racontent" by Souleymane Djigo Diop. After the next book discussion, librarians will have new fables to share and can organize activities around them with the children
8)    Activities
    - Explained how to play Dominos and gave stencils to librarians to use during arts and crafts activities
    - Charley explained how to do new activities including the reading activity 'Guess the Ending' and how to start a book club with both children and adults at the library
9)    Miscellaneous

Overall the meeting was productive and efficient. After the meeting Dounko and Alou followed Hamidou back to Pobé-Mengao where Dounko will begin Alou's 2-week librarian training.