Resources to empower girls worldwide
Challenge
Women rightsEducation
Everywhere in the world, girls and young women face violence and discrimination. Access to culture, knowledge and information are key to combating this scourge for two reasons:
- in a logic of prevention, so that they gain the confidence and awareness they need to overcome self-censorship and/or overcome discrimination ;
- in a logic of curation, to help them survive (in cases of violence in particular) and rebuild, via the use of culture as a means of escape and creation to recount their trauma, and access to knowledge as a tool for building their future (crafts, entrepreneurship etc).
However, Libraries Without Borders notes that very often, young girls and women are less numerous to visit its programs, which the NGO therefore wishes to enrich and adapt to these issues.
Solution
The aim is to carry out a project to enrich the resources and activities made available to each of Libraries Without Borders' programs, in 36 different languages, via:
- work to select and create new adapted content (books, videos, moocs etc.);
- the design of teaching kits to run specific workshops for young girls (self-confidence, speaking out, creativity, orientation, civic mobilization etc.), in partnership with experts on the subject, with a view to prevention.
News
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"MY BAG OF BOOKS": SHARING THE JOY OF READING AND WELCOMING VISITORS
In June, BSF donated backpacks filled with books to 3,000 French-speaking students who have recently arrived in France and are attending school in Amiens, Aix-Marseille, Créteil and Paris, as well as in Strasbourg, which has been designated World Book Capital in 2024 by UNESCO.
In each of these backpacks: books chosen especially for them by peers their own age. This program, supported by BSF for the sixth consecutive year, is a large-scale educational project aimed at students enrolled in UPE2A - Unité pédagogique pour élèves allophones arrivants. This National Education scheme enables children newly arrived in France to be enrolled in an "ordinary" class, while benefiting from adapted support to learn French. Fully included in the school system, these students can meet new people and regain their self-confidence.
Throughout the month of June, 3,000 pupils from CP to 3ème received a bag of five books chosen especially for them - according to their age, level of French, interests - thanks to a pedagogical work carried out with their teachers and classmates, based on a bibliography and activity sheets drawn up by BSF.
Throughout the month of June, 3,000 pupils from CP to 3ème received a bag of five books chosen especially for them - according to their age, level of French, interests - thanks to a pedagogical work carried out with their teachers and classmates, based on a bibliography and activity sheets drawn up by BSF.
WHEN ART CHANGES THE WORLD!
As part of the Inside Out photography project, initiated by French artist JR, Bibliothèques Sans Frontières organized an exhibition in the Kavumu refugee camp in Burundi, honoring those who are too often forgotten behind the numbers. Because being a refugee is a status, not an identity: that's what fifty Congolese women, men and teenagers wanted to express through their portraits, which lined the walls of the camp's library.
The aim? "To deconstruct prejudices about refugees and give a voice back to those who are too often invisibilized" explains Paulin Bulakali, in charge of the project in Burundi. The setting for the exhibition: the library in the Kavumu camp, where BSF deployed its first Ideas Box in 2015.
"The Kavumu camp is currently home to 17,700 Congolese. Most of them have fled armed conflict and ethnic violence. Some have been here for twenty years, others were even born here. Their living conditions can be difficult, and their prospects limited. However, they are not the vulnerable people portrayed, disconnected from the world and without hope. On the contrary! They make music, are comedians, entrepreneurs or teachers. Above all, they have dreams, just like everyone else.
With Inside Out, their story and message become a work of art on an international scale; it's very powerful for them. On the day of the exhibition, I felt their joy, pride and recognition." Paulin Bulakali.
In June 2023, Alexandra Guiral and Louis Villers, volunteer journalists at BSF, traveled to Burundi for the exhibition's inauguration. Discover their report!
The money will be used for
The money raised will be used to set up a team of educational experts to select and/or create suitable content and resources.
