In December of 2006, I arrived in the village of Niankorodougou, Burkina Faso to start my two years of service as a Small Enterprise Development volunteer with the United States Peace Corps. My first three months in village were established as a time to get to know my community, their wants and their needs. This was also the time to lay out plans for the next two years. It was back then, that I first met with the director of the secondary school Ouedraogo Mamadou and several professors to discuss the community’s education-specific needs. Mr. Ouedraogo reported that the biggest problem for students is a want for books. Further meetings with local officials highlighted literacy and a lack of access to reading materials as a grave issue in the community as a whole.
I have been working with community leaders and the secondary school to decide the best way to address this problem. Their solution was to open a village library. In the last quarter of 2007 the project “A Library and Literacy for Niankorodougou” commenced. The goal of the project is to promote equitable social development and productive literacy practices by providing materials and other educational opportunities to children, students, and adults in Niankorodougou.
