Every weekend Saber Hosseini, a schoolteacher in central Afghanistan, piles his bicycle with hundreds of books and travels to villages where children don’t have schools. Turning his bike into a mobile library while cruising the countryside, Hosseini provides youth an opportunity to read.
“Many of the children are old enough for third or fourth grade, but in fact they have not learned to read or write at all. This should not be happening.”
Access to an education in the war-torn country can be quite difficult in larger cities. However, in more remote communities such as Bamyan province, one of the poorest and most mountainous areas in the country, it is nearly impossible. Because the majority of the schools have been destroyed by war, children from remote villages often drop out of school, due to burdensome distances in travel. As a result, the province ranks very low in literacy rates.
“These kids live such stressful lives. They live in a society that is full of death and violence,” says the educator whose life is occasionally threatened by phone.
Six months ago Hosseini shared the idea of a “bicycle library” with several friends within his literary circle. As a result, he raised money to purchase 200 books. In less than seven months the library has grown from a collection of merely 200 books to 3,500.
“We work as a sort of library. Every week, we bring kids new book and take back the old ones to distribute to children in other villages,” he said. “Some of the adults have even taken to borrowing our more advanced books.”
Hosseini and his volunteers travel to the Iranian border to purchase most books. Six months ago they only selected beginning level books for the young readers. Today, the children are capable of reading more advanced books from such authors as Victor Hugo, Jack London, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Samad Behrangi –an Iranian author and Ferdowski –an Iranian poet. Within less than one month, after keeping track of all of the books he’s passed out, Hosseini returns to surrounding villages with new books he’s borrowed from the local library.
“The Taliban have at times used bicycles in their bomb attacks. So the message I want to convey is that we can replace this violence with culture. When I hand the books out to them, I can see their excitement and joy,” he says. “It is the joy of being able to learn. I am also inspired. We want to keep delivering a bit of joy and calm in their lives through books.”
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