KABUL (Web Desk) – A school teacher in war-torn Afghanistan has converted his bicycle into a mobile library which he rides into remote villages, providing local children access to books.
“I came up with the idea for this project six months ago. I talked about it to friends in literary circles, who donated money and got some of their friends abroad to donate as well,” said Saber Hosseini, who teaches children in the city of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan.
“I started alone with 200 storybooks for kids, and started riding to remote villages throughout Bamiyan province. Soon, I recruited more volunteers – now there are 20 of us, and we have a collection of about 6,000 books,” Hosseini told Business Insider.
Afghanistan’s “Plastic Bag Messi” reaches Pakistan after threats
Most of these books are imported from Iran, according to Oddity Central.
Hosseini revealed that he chose to use bicycles for his mobile library project for a number of reasons. Many of volunteers simply cannot afford cars and most of the villages in his province are only accessible by bike. But there was also a symbolic meaning to his choice.
“The Taliban used bicycles in their bomb attacks – so I wanted to replace violence with culture,” he said.
Every weekend, he loads his cycle with books and rides to remote villages, most of which don’t even have schools. “Many of those children are old enough for the third or fourth grade,” the devoted teacher said.
Pakistani teacher Aqeela Asifi shines at Global Teachers Prize
“But in fact, they have not learned to read or write at all. This should not be happening,” he added.
Saber Hosseini keeps track of all the books he has left behind, so that he can bring new ones for the kids the next time around.
“We work as a sort of library – every week, we bring kids new books and take back the old ones to distribute to children in other villages. Some of the adults have even taken to borrowing our more advanced books.
“At first, I chose very simple books, but now most of the older kids are able to read more serious books – for example, we’ve got simplified versions of books by Victor Hugo, Jack London, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Samad Behrangi, and Ferdowsi.”
Hosseini does more than just distribute books to children – he also stops to talk to them about topics such as peace, tolerance, and why they should stay away from drugs. “One time, I talked to children in a village about guns, using the slogan ‘say no to guns and yes to books,’” he recalled.
Sadly, Hosseini is forced to work with a limited budget and cannot always afford to get the kinds of books that the children request – mainly comics about Batman that they’ve seen on TV.
There are other dangers associated with his work too – he sometimes receives threatening calls warning him to only distribute religious books or face dire consequences. His wife, also a teacher, has not been spared either – a student once warned her that some of his relatives in the Taliban were planning to kill her.
“Despite these difficulties,” we want to keep going,” Hosseini said. “These kids live such stressful lives – they live in a society that is full of death and violence, and they often face violence from their parents at home, too. So we want to keep delivering a bit of joy and calm in their lives through books.”
