USAID launches four mobile libraries for children

Islamabad
USAID launched four mobile libraries for Pakistani students on the occasion of International Literacy Day.
These libraries are aimed at ensuring easy access to age-appropriate reading material for communities by taking libraries to places where none otherwise exist in order to help re-introduce and re-establish a national culture of reading in Pakistan.
USAID Deputy Mission Director Cathy Moore launched the new mobile libraries provided through the Pakistan Reading Project at a government secondary school in Islamabad as part of International Literacy Day, a global effort to encourage reading and education.
The new buses will bring reading materials to more than 300 communities across Pakistan, reaching more than 2,500 students in 100 primary schools in Islamabad alone, and many more in rural parts of the nation which may not have traditional library resources.
“The United States is pleased to be supported this Mobile Library Program which will bring books and other reading material directly to communities,” Moore said. “I am happy that through today’s roll out of the mobile bus libraries under the USAID-Funded Pakistan Reading Program we are continuing this tradition of supporting Pakistan in its efforts to strengthen its education system and promote a culture of reading.”
The USAID-Funded Pakistan Reading Project is a $165 million project, designed to support provincial and regional department of education to improve the reading skills of primary school children across the country. This program is designed to utilize three interrelated component to affect the quality of early education: improved classroom learning environment for reading, improved policies and systems for reading, and community based support for reading in Pakistan.