 |
| Boys taking books from the village motorcycle library |
In a country that stretches for 5,400 km from east to west (roughly the equivalent of New York to London), which consists of around 6,000 inhabited islands, it is almost impossible for there to be nationwide access to education facilities. The idea of a mobile library on Flores came from the
Murti Bunanta Foundation, the Ohanashi Caravan Center and the International Board on Books for Young People. Close cooperation with the authorities also means that state schools and village communities can benefit from the project.
Gregor Nitihardjo, the director of SOS Children's Villages Indonesia, talks about the aims of the mobile library: "Children who live in remote areas in particular should be encouraged to read. The Lesser Sunda Islands, of which Flores is a part, are extremely isolated. The inhabitants of the islands are very poor. Most children have not even got the books that they need for school at home. Since they often cannot practise reading, their reading skills are often very limited. What could be better for them than a mobile library?"
 |
| The village motorcycle library |
The mobile library consists of two motorcycles that have containers mounted on them, which each hold around 700 books and magazines. One "book bike" rides around the area of SOS Children's Village Flores, also bringing books to the many children in the surrounding areas, and the other covers the schools in the town of Maumere. The motorbikes are on the road up to three times a week and attract people's attention by playing a well-known tune from speakers with a voice-over that says "I'm smart because I love reading!"
The books and magazines can be borrowed free of charge. The children do not, however, take the reading materials home with them - they read them there and then. During the long dry periods, the schools simply put tables and benches outside in the yard; during the rainy season they use a classroom. Most of the books are quite short and have illustrations - the idea is to get the children interested and not to expect too much of them at once.
 |
| See the big wide world through books! |
Staff members from SOS Children's Villages work as mobile librarians. They ride the motorcycles, help the children to select reading materials, show how to handle books and supervise the bookworms whilst they read. The younger children in particular sometimes even turn into storytellers.
If possible, the children are grouped according to their reading skills and the year they are in at school. Since the level of education in Flores is very low, many eight-year olds still have problems reading, but the older children are happy to help them out!
When the mobile library was first presented, there was great excitement among the children from SOS Children's Village Flores, the surrounding communities and the town of Maumere. It was as if they had found some new toys. Ten-year old Rehana is just as enthusiastic about the book bike as she was back then: "It has really helped us to learn how to enjoy reading. I've learnt a lot since I've been coming here." And an SOS mother thinks that the mobile library is like "an open window, through which the children can see the big wide world."