Book Bikes - Girls Reading to Succeed

After making a mark in Lahore, this project was send to Barkhan district in Balochistan and has been running in 13 low income communities and has visited girls’ schools that opened recently after the long Covid break. communities. 664 children have been direct beneficiaries of the Book Bike in the month that it has been in Barkhan. Mobile libraries have become even more needed and empowering for children stuck at home in times of the pandemic; battling mental stress, uncertainty, school closure and poverty due to job losses of their parents. This critical literacy support service does not just bring activity based learning but is a means of psycho-social therapy for these traumatized children.

The young girls have particularly enjoyed the story books with the colourful illustrations. Where schools are not equipped with libraries, the Book Bike enables these young girls to feed their creative faculties and let their imaginations soar.

After the successful implementation in Barkhan, we were able to design and send out one more bike library to Mardan in KPK province of Pakistan.

We were able to launch the second book bike in the month of October after Ayesha Jabbar, won an Aus Award for it.

For the community in Mardan the idea of a bike with books is entirely novel and the project implementers see it as a great enabler for struggling readers. It will take some time for the children and elders to get maximum benefit from the service offered, but todate
it is a source of excitement and novelty for children ages 7 - 11 as they rush towards it when it visits their area. They are so excited to see the colorful books that they cannot decide which one to read and keep looking at different books and their illustrations before finally picking a book to read.
The books are not being issued at the moment and children can only read for the three hours the book bike is there. With growing interest and understanding of the project, we will devise a plan of issuing books to keen readers.

The biggest challenge is to invite more girls to make use of the service due to cultural restrictions of girls staying at home, so the current number is 40 boys and 15 girls but we encouraging girls to ask their younger siblings to bring books to the house for them to read. We are also looking for female mobile librarians to address this challenge.

Most of the people in the area are illiterate and have mixed reactions to this service. However, the greater majority are very happy that their children will get to read and learn more than them and have been lauding the Book Bike.

The Book Bike is an initiative launched during the pandemic by Alif Laila Book Bus Society and has been up and running since the last 6 months in four low income communities of Lahore. It has been equipped with 500 books and an LED screen that allows children to learn through watching educational videos. This mobile library has been going to communities and providing books to children whose learning was compromised because of school closure. Many hundred children have rushed to the Book Bike to pick out story books to read and enjoy and to watch interesting science, astronomy, craft and “how to make” videos on the screen installed inside the library box.

The Book Bike was a novelty at the Spring Fair in Lahore in March when the pandemic wave was at an ebb and parks were open for some time.

It also reached out to children at the Pakistan Learning Festival also in March.

After making a mark in Lahore, this project is now running in 13 low income communities of Barkhan District, Balochistan and has visited girls’ schools that opened recently, and communities. 664 children have been direct beneficiaries of the Book Bike in the month that it has been in Barkhan. Mobike libraries have become even more needed and empowering for children stuck at home in times of the pandemic; battling mental stress, uncertainty, school closure and poverty due to job losses of their parents. This critical literacy support service does not just bring activity based learning but is a means of psycho-social therapy for these traumatized children.

The Book Bike is addressing a very unique and mostly ignored aspect of COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan, which is how to mitigate the negative effects of home confinement in children. Home confinement, fear of disease, lack of interaction with friends, financial loss, school dropout, has caused psychological stress at a vulnerable age. It is especially acute for those from low income communities and one-room homes. With no school to divert and occupy them, children have been struggling to remain mentally healthy. This project hopes to counter all these effects while also encouraging reading and a love for literature in our children.

Paucity of funds and resources has not created the bike literacy movement we have in mind, and one library is not sufficient since many areas of need have not been accessed. We are trying very hard to acquire more bike libraries, to take the library/literacy movement forward.

The Bike Library has visited 13 places in Barkhan and it’s environs: GGHS Barkhan, GGMS Middle School Madina Masjid, GGPS Babu Allah Dad Sooman, Gul Public School Barkhan, GGMS Middle School Azam Jan Shalmani, GGPS Kareemi Mohallah, Ghazali Public School, The Best School, One Room School Babu Mohallah, Hasan Public School, GGPS Mohallah Sadiqani, Mohallah Haji Sher Ali and Mohallah Gadai Barkhan.

It has created great excitement in Barkan and has been appreciated by adults as much as it is loved by the children.