If you are interested in getting books into the hands of Ethiopian kids, here is a great website: http://www.ethiopiareads.org/. Ethiopia Reads, begun by award-winning children’s author Jane Kurtz, is building libraries in towns and villages all around Ethiopia. They have created over 65 libraries, adding them in every region of the country. And here are a couple facts from their website, to press home why these libraries are needed!
Did you know?
- Ethiopia has the second highest population in Africa at 82,950,000.
- The population of ages 0-14 is 26.8%, or 22,230,600.
- 2,389,945 of those kids are not in school.
- Only 69.1% of females complete primary school.
- Only 75.3% of males complete primary school.
- Youth literacy is 44.6%
- Adult literacy is 42%
- This ranks them 195th in the world in adult literacy.
Tim Bascom, Author 