In September 2023, Action Education and its partners inaugurated a mobile library. It welcomes children and adults from communities on the flood plains of the Tonlé Sap lake, in the province of Battambang in Cambodia.
The library is designed to promote literacy and strengthen the reading culture among children and adults. It houses hundreds of titles, as well as an internet connection, connected televisions, fans, and a water filter. The library will be open to pupils from Monday to Saturday to encourage them to read and allow them to borrow books to read at home.
Despite having over 300 pupils, the limited resources of Khum Koh Chivaing Primary School meant that it previously had only a few books. These were rotated between classes to enable the pupils to read.
A library to get into the habit of reading
The headmaster of Khum Koh Chivaing Primary School, Nuon Vuthy, said:” I am extremely pleased that Action Education has set up a library in the school. The library will enable children to get into the habit of reading from the start of primary school and, after reading in class, they can continue to read in the library. The library offers unique books that stimulate children’s curiosity and encourage them to read more. As our school is flooded during the rainy season, we don’t have a playground as such, and it can be dangerous for pupils to play outside. With this library, they get into the habit of reading.”
Navy Chanthou, an 8-year-old third-grader at Khum Koh Chivaing Primary School, is all smiles as she happily declares: ” I’m glad that the school has a library because there are lots of books to read and learn from. I like books with pictures. Every day I spend at least half an hour reading books in the library. .”
More than 10 school libraries around the Tonlé Sap
Samphors Vorn, Country Director of Action Education in Cambodia, said: “We hope that the library will help to promote study and health awareness activities. The connected TVs will be used to support storytelling activities and knowledge related to applied science, technology, engineering and maths. The digital library will also serve as a resource that teachers can use to research pedagogy and career guidance. .”
This initiative is part of the CCOSC (Cambodian Consortium for Out-of-School Children,) run by Action Education in partnership with Education Above All, through its Educate A Child programme. The school library project currently supports more than 10 libraries around the Tonle Sap lake region, including nine mobile libraries (tuk-tuk) and a boat library.
