KABUL — A mobile library bus chugged
to a
Kabul orphanage Sunday and opened its doors for the first time since the
Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, eliciting beaming smiles from
children.
اضافة اعلان
"I'm really feeling happy. I'm studying
the books I love again," says 11-year-old Arezo Azizi, whose favorite tome
is a counting aid about a cat who gets more pieces of cheese the higher it can
count.
The library "didn't come for three
months, until now," she explains, sitting on a converted public bus and
her voice rising above the excited chatter of her peers.
The mobile library is one of five buses
leased by a local organization called Charmaghz, established by Freshta Karim,
an Afghan graduate from
Oxford University.
Hundreds of children have in recent years
made use of the mobile libraries daily as they crisscrossed Kabul, as many
schools lack their own library.
But "we lost almost all of our sponsors
after the government was taken (over) by the Taliban" in-mid August, says
Ahmad Fahim Barakati, deputy head of the non-profit initiative.
The Taliban's education ministry granted
permission for the mobile libraries to restart several weeks ago. But it was
only a few days ago that agreement was reached with the transport ministry,
which owns the buses, Barakati explained.
Like the children, librarian Ramzia Abdi
Khail, 22, is visibly happy that the show is back on the road.
"It's a lovely feeling. Currently, the
schools are also closed," she notes.
Girls' education has been hit particularly
hard by the Taliban's return to power, as millions of girls across the country
have been barred from secondary education in state schools.
"We have street kids and I love to
serve them because they do not have the opportunity to go to school, and this
is a way that I can serve them," adds Khail.
"We have Islamic books, we have English
and Dari storybooks ... we have painting books, different game books."
Charmaghz has enough funds at present to
keep the mobile libraries on the road for a month or so, Barakati says.
"We are raising funds through online
platforms and globally and I hope we have enough sponsors and donators" to
keeping going beyond then, he says.
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