Ethiopia Reads - Moving Forward in 2007

Ethiopia Reads believes that those who read bloom. In the past six months, Ethiopia Reads itself has grown and bloomed, expanding its literacy programs in Ethiopia and making scores of new friends in the United States.

Ethiopia Reads was founded by Yohannes Gebregeorgis, an Ethiopian who returned home after spending nearly two decades as a librarian in San Francisco. With programs in Addis Ababa and Awassa, Ethiopia Reads works to create a reading culture in Ethiopia, one book at a time. We do this by planting libraries for children, publishing children’s books in English as well as local Ethiopian languages and training teachers and educators to cultivate a love of books in young people.

Since forming in 2003, Ethiopia Reads has opened Shola Children’s Library, the first free children’s library in Ethiopia, which houses more than 15,000 books for kids. Last year, staff recorded 60,000 visits from boys and girls, many of whom experience the joy of books for the first time at Shola. We also published an English/Amharic version of the beloved children’s tale, Silly Mammo; we recently published our second bi-lingual volume, Pulling the Lion’s Tail, written by Ethiopia Reads President Jane Kurtz.

After an amazing close to 2006, we begin 2007 with a bang. In the early months of this year, we will:
• Open five new children's school libraries in Addis Ababa
• Continue work on four new children's books that will be published in Amharic and English by April
• Train staff and provide books for five additional school libraries, in partnership with our friends at the Children of Ethiopia Educational Fund
• Continue planning for our biggest Ethiopia Children's Book Week celebration ever
• Launch the first-ever Ethiopian Reads Children's Book Week in the United States, with a culminating festival in Washington, D.C.

Please visit www.ethiopiareads.org for more information on how you can get involved.