Africa: “On the Road with Nigeria’s First Mobile Library”

From the Agence France Press Report (via The Borneo Bulletin):

Funmi Ilori once had a dream about creating the biggest library in Africa. Now she drives vans packed with books to poor areas of Lagos to help children discover a love of reading.
“Readers are what?” she asks about 15 youngsters, sitting on little plastic stools in a classroom in a small converted lorry.
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“Public libraries are functional in Nigeria, well, at least in Lagos. But not many people maximise the use of them,” she said.
“We need to catch new readers from a young age. In rural communities, there are children that have never held a book.
“I advocate for community libraries everywhere. Just as churches are springing up, libraries should be springing up.”
Ilori is a former primary schoolteacher who began a book-lending business in 2003.

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