Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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London: Undeterred by the risk of suicide bombers, 25-year-old Freshta Karim travels around Afghanistan’s troubled capital every day in a big, blue bus to share the magic of reading with children.
After graduating from Britain’s University of Oxford, she set up Kabul’s first mobile library to let some of Afghanistan’s 3.5 million out-of schoolchildren — mostly girls — listen to stories and pore over picturebooks.
“When I was a child, I did not have the opportunity to go to a library,” she said by phone from Kabul.
“My goal is to enable them not only to think critically, but also to be able to question the wrongdoing they see.”
Afghanistan has one of the world’s lowest literacy rates, with only three in 10 adults able to read, according to United Nations cultural agency, Unesco. Karim set up the Charmaghz — meaning walnut in Dari — mobile library with three friends in January in a bus rented from the government, and painted it with colourful symbols to attract children.
Bringing stories to Kabul’s children
Something nice out of Afghanistan.
After graduating from Britain’s University of Oxford, she set up Kabul’s first mobile library to let some of Afghanistan’s 3.5 million out-of schoolchildren — mostly girls — listen to stories and pore over picturebooks.
“When I was a child, I did not have the opportunity to go to a library,” she said by phone from Kabul.
“My goal is to enable them not only to think critically, but also to be able to question the wrongdoing they see.”
Afghanistan has one of the world’s lowest literacy rates, with only three in 10 adults able to read, according to United Nations cultural agency, Unesco. Karim set up the Charmaghz — meaning walnut in Dari — mobile library with three friends in January in a bus rented from the government, and painted it with colourful symbols to attract children.
Bringing stories to Kabul’s children
Something nice out of Afghanistan.
