What’s New in 2022

February

TRUST IN EDUCATION’s Mujeeb distributed 14,050 books to 7 libraries – where two hundred eighty families received a set of 14 books each.

There are only girls in the photos with the exception of a couple of young boys– The Taliban don’t allow men to teach girls and women to teach boys — All of TIE’s employees at the libraries were women when the Taliban took over and they hired them back — So for now the libraries are used by girls — an average of over 500 per day — some day they plan to allocate half the hours to girls and half to boys.

GOOD NEWS!

At the end of February Viamo and Hoopoe formed a partnership to make Dari and Pashto Hoopoe audio books available for free on the Roshan mobile network via the 234 service operated by Viamo. Hoopoe Audio Books on Viamo’s 234 Service in Afghanistan could potentially reach 100s of people.

These initial six titles, written by Idries Shah, are now available in both Dari and Pashto: The Clever Boy and the Terrible, Dangerous Animal; The Silly Chicken; The Farmer’s Wife; The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water; The Old Woman and the Eagle; and The Boy Without a Name. The 234 service allows Roshan subscribers 5 free calls each month, each with sufficient free connection time to listen to at least one story.

Each recording will mention the title, author and our Kabul partner’s phone number should listeners wish to obtain the story as an illustrated book.

In under one month 900 people had signed on.

January

Books for Afghanistan is back in business!!

You may remember that in 2018, we worked with linguists from SIL.org to create Hoopoe Books in eight Afghan minority languages, paired with the national language (Dari or Pashto) of that region. Late last year we printed 1,000 copies of three titles in Hazaragi-Dari for the Hazara communities at the request of Roman Gehring, who runs the Hazaragi literacy project. He particularly wanted these books to reach some of the mountain villages as soon as possible. This was our first book printing since the Taliban takeover, and we were waiting with anticipation to see if all went well.

Today we heard from Roman: “Thank you again, for assisting us with the reprinting of 3 Hoopoe book titles. A couple of days ago I had a chance to talk with the man who transported the books up to the mountains – there was much snow on the roads, but they made it ok.  Also, thankfully there was only one Taliban check post – they looked at all of the books, asked some questions, haggled a little bit …, but in the end let them go without any problems.  I hope to get some pictures of readers in the future – and when I do, I’ll be sure to send some to you.”

Reading Hoopoe books in a Hazara village sitting room.

Young students at a Hazara village school receive copies of Hoopoe Books.

This is such a good sign, it means we can do much more for Afghan children whose mother tongue is not one of the two national languages. You’ll remember that children in Afghanistan do not enter school until the age of seven, and when they do their classes are in either Dari or Pashto. By providing minority communities with bilingual books in their own language, paired with the language they will need when they enter school, we can prepare them so that they don’t fall behind. In addition, they will take pride in their own culture, as they learn to read beautiful stories in the language they speak at home instead of a language with which they are far less familiar.

2021

Since 2009, Hoopoe’s Books for Afghanistan program has published our teaching stories in Dari-Pashto bilingual editions, editions in English and minority languages and donated them to more than 5 million children in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Sadly, the Taliban takeover in August forced us to suspend this program indefinitely.

We have now turned our efforts to welcoming a wave of young Afghan emigrants to their new homes, giving as many children as possible these same traditional tales from their homeland in beautiful bilingual Dari and Pashto editions, paired with English, French or German. See: Books for Refugees

Moska Mobile Library

Mahir Momand and his enthusiastic volunteer staff wrote “Our effort is to be able to cover the whole of Afghanistan so that everyone has access to their favorite books.” They sent the following pictures from some of their efforts since the beginning of 2021.

Girls in a school-tent in Kabul
Kids outdoors with Hoopoe books
boys outside with Hoopoe books
Boys and girls in a tent school with Hoopoe books

Tents and the open air provide “school” spaces where children of internally displaced families can learn.

Karadah Project International

“Few things in life give me more pleasure than reading. I still remember my first book, Curious George. Now, Afghan children in a displacement camp will now have their own books.”

THANK YOU!
Rick

We first met Lt. Col. Rick Burns in 2010 and were so pleased to hear from him again recently, and to have the opportunity to send books to the children of a wonderful kindergarten for displaced children in Herat that his foundation, Karadah, has recently opened. It’s a joy to see such a happy space for young Afghan children!

Boy smiling with the book Boy Without A Name
Boys in class reading The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water
2 Afghan girls reading The Man and the Fox
Child holding up Hoopoe book

Sawji-Pashto Editions

Books were recently delivered to Saw communities in Kunar Province, including to the Nari District Department of Education and to 1340 students and 150 teachers in four high schools. The translator’s father also took books into four remote villages. He tells us that the villagers were really pleased to receive books because they previously felt that they were always left behind; they told him that “With your help, we can move forward in terms of education and learn something new. This is the first time we have seen picture story books.”

Below are some pictures from the different villages, giving, also, a view of this mountainous region of Afghanistan.

Saw kids holding up Hoopoe books
Saw kids holding up Hoopoe books
Saw kids with adults with Hoopoe books
Saw kids holding up Hoopoe books
Thank you for helping us reach these small communities with Hoopoe Books.

Over 5 Million Hoopoe Books Distributed!

Kids from Hope House orphanage in the Panjshir Valley

Children from Hope House Orphanage in the Panjshir Valley.

A boy and his 4 sisters with Hoopoe books in Afghanistan

Mokhtar and his four sisters are learning to read with Hoopoe books.

We began the Hoopoe Books for Afghanistan program 13 years ago and thanks to our amazing partners in Kabul, we have now distributed a total of 5,019,381 books!

Our book donation program was hampered at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, but by the end of this year, our Afghan partners had found safe ways to get books to children. In 2020 your donations have helped us deliver:

  • 58,285 books in Dari-Pashto, 21,040 books in English, 10,000 books in Shugni-Dari, and 22,000 books in Sawji-Pashto.
  • Thanks to our friends in Canada, we are currently distributing 24,000 books to Turkmen Afghans in their mother tongue paired with Dari, the national language children will need when they enter first grade.
  • We’ve received so many requests for new titles, that we have decided to publish an Afghan edition of The Man with Bad Manners by Idries Shah.

2020

December

The Lamia Afghan Foundation

students from Haidari Memorial Primary School with The Man and the Fox
Boys at Haidari Memorial Primary School with The Boy Without a Name

The Lamia Afghan Foundation recently completed building the Haidari Memorial Primary School in the Shindan District, Herat Province, in a village call Shorab. It is for 300 children, each of whom will have a set of Hoopoe books, and their teacher, Hoopoe Teacher Guides.

September-October

SIL International/SAMAR

SIL International/SAMAR works with local Afghan communities to develop language solutions that expand possibilities for a better life. “These books are the entrance ramp onto the highway of Sawji literacy.” —David Miller, SAMAR

The pictures below are from Sawji-Pashto book distributions in Qala Khily and Whadat Mena. The students asked if it was possible to bring them more books like these if they are printed. They said that this was the first time that they had seen many books printed in the Sawji language, and they are very interested and happy in seeing more.

Sawji-Pashto book distribution to Afghan children
Sawji-Pashto book distribution to Afghan children

Happy children with their new Sawji-Pashto bilingual editions.

Afghan girls line up to receive their Sawji-Pashto editions of Hoopoe books

Afghan girls recieve their Sawji-Pashto editions of The Silly Chicken, The Magic Horse, The Clever Boy and the Terrible, Dangerous Animal, and Neem the Half-Boy.

Aschiana

Aschiana is a non-profit organization founded to serve the rising number of street-working children in Kabul. They write to us, “Story telling has been an ancient and effective way to learn. We at Aschiana run a Mobile Library for the children who do not have access to a library or books. Our staff members share stories with the children with a social message to inculcate hope, love of humanity among them.”

The pictures below are of a session at Shahrak-e-Police Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camp.

Classroom at IDP camp
3 children at IDP camp in Afghanistan

Hadia Foundation

Our friends at Hadia sent us another report and more pictures. Hadia operates the Moska Mobile Library and also gives out books to children directly. They were able to reopen operations in mid-July and write that their mobile library returned to “areas that were only partially covered” prior to the pandemic closings.

More than 200 books are given out daily to children in different villages. Below are some pictures from Nangarhar, Laghman,and Kunar Provinces.

2 happy Afghan girls and a Hoopoe book

Girls happy to have books available.

classroom of girls with Hoopoe books

Schools have reopened and Hadia has donated books to these girls, who can’t wait to read them.

2 children from Kunar province with Hoopoe books

Kunar Province

2 children from Nangrahar province with Hoopoe books

Nangarhar Province

a boy from Laghman province with a Hoopoe book

Laghman Province

Care International in Afghanistan

We have received a report and some pictures from CARE International.

Last winter we were able to donate 12,000 books and 2,100 teacher’s guides, along with tapes and CDs to them for distribution to libraries in their Multi Grade and Leave No Girls Behind programs in Parwan, Kapisa, Paktia, Ghazni and Khost Provinces.

Almost 4,000 students are benefiting from access to these books and requesting more.

Classroom of happy kids with Hoopoe books in Ghazni
Afghan girl with a Hoopoe book distributed by Care
Ghazni Province
Outdoor classroom of kids with Hoopoe books in Paktia

Paktia Province

Afghan classroom of girls with Hoopoe books distributed by Care

Kapisa Province

July

The Hadia Foundation

The Hadia Foundation wrote to us:

“Yes, our mobile library is back after introducing COVID-19 precautionary measures in line with government guidelines. We have started distributing books again to girls and boys in rural Afghanistan.”

Our partners in Kabul were finally able to deliver 2,000 each of our Dari-Pashto bilingual titles and 500 each of our English titles—30,000 books in all—to the Hadia warehouse for distribution throughout this year.

Afghanistan children holding books
Afghanistan children holding books- distributed by The Hadia Foundation

Peace and Friendship

Peace and Friendship is a group of young volunteer activists, whose aim is to promote a culture of volunteerism, helping poor and marginalized families and providing humanitarian services. We’ve just delivered 5,000 Dari-Pashto bilingual and 2,000 English books to their Kabul office for distribution over the next six months.

Children in Kabul, Afghanistan holding books- distributed by Hoopoe Books
This photo is from the Peace and Friendship distribution of Hoopoe books to children in Kabul

June – WE MADE IT!

Thanks to our generous donors, 10,000 Hoopoe Books (1000 each of 10 teaching stories by Idries Shah) in Shughni-Dari bilingual editions, were delivered to the Shughni Project on June 9. Distribution began almost immediately in the Shughnan region of Badakhshan Province in Northeastern Afghanistan. Karen Olson, project manager for the Shughni Project, sent this report from the preschool supervisor there:

“Somebody told me they were so bored this year because schools were not open. They were very happy to receive the books so they have something to do. One of the children seemed unhappy. When asked..she said ‘My father doesn’t let me study in your kindergarten’ Then I asked her father and gave her a package of kindergarten materials and then she became very happy.”

“In one village, we had not had a kindergarten in the past, but this winter we held a literacy course for the women. Now, at their suggestion, we gave them materials for their children. Both these women and their children will benefit.”

Afghanistan Child reading book- distributed by Hoopoe Books
Northern Afghanistan child reading book
Afghanistan child reading book - Shugni Project
March

Preschool Program in Shughnan

The Shughni people live high up in the Pamir mountains of Afghanistan where they make a livelihood mostly through subsistence farming and raising sheep and goats. They speak the Shughni language at home and around their community.

But, when children go to school in grade one, they have to learn Dari, which is a foreign language for them. Furthermore, some children have to walk an hour or more to get to school on dangerous mountain roads.

The community, run by our translation team, came up with a solution:

Shughni kids with their teachers outside
Shughni Kids with flashcards
Shughni kids wearing colorful clothes with their teachers in the background
Shughni kids in the classroom

Children and their teachers from the first Shughnan preschool program.

“We decided to begin a preschool program in Shughnan. In this program, five-and-six-year-olds learn for two years in their mother tongue. This gives them a solid foundation in phonics, gets them used to the classroom setting in a comfortable environment, and helps them develop an interest in reading and writing by teaching them to read in a language they already understand—their own.

“The Hoopoe books, with their colorful illustrations and bilingual Shughni-Dari stories, will further help these children to develop this interest in reading and writing. Students will be awarded these books on graduation from the preschool program. We also hope to distribute the books to schools for use in their libraries.” — Karen Olson, SAMAR.

2019

December

Since we began this program 12 years ago, we have DISTRIBUTED A TOTAL 4,884,056 BOOKS!

Thanks to generous donations in 2019, we provided 79,428 books in Dari-Pashto and 18,118 in English to children in Afghanistan. In addition, thanks to our friends in Canada, we have also distributed 22,000 books in Uzbeki-Dari and Pashai-Dari editions. Here are some photos of the children who have received Hoopoe books since August:

Afghan children with Hoopoe books thanks to Aschiana
Afghan boys with Hoopoe books thanks to Aschiana

At least 1,500 children who are refugees in their own country received Hoopoe books through the Aschiana Foundation.

Afghan girls in a tent classroom with Hoopoe books
Afghan kids outside with Hoopoe books
Afghan boys in a classroom with Neem the Half-Boy

Thousands of girls and boys in Nangarhar, Kunar and Laghman Province received their first storybooks – thanks to The Hadia Foundation and their Moska Mobile Library.

2 Afghan children with Hoopoe books
3 Afghan children with Hoopoe books in winder landscape
3 Afghan children with Hoopoe books in front of the Moska Mobile Library
2 Afghan children with Hoopoe books
2 Afghan children with Hoopoe books
2 Afghan children with Hoopoe books in front of Moska Mobile Library

The Director of the Hadia Foundation writes: “These children love reading and increase their proficiency with every new book!”

Afghan children in class with Hoopoe books
Afghan children in class with Hoopoe books
Afghan children in class with Hoopoe books
Afghan children in class with Hoopoe books

Hundreds of children in Noor Al-Mustafa Private School in Kabul received Hoopoe books.

68,974 Dari-Pashto bilingual Hoopoe Books Distributed to Nine Organizations as of August 2019

The Moska Mobile Library, the largest mobile library for children, delivered hundreds more of our books to children in rural areas of Nangarhar province. Travelling on their tricycle motorbikes, as they enter a village they play an “ice cream van-like” tone that the kids now recognize and come out to get their books. These are kids whose lives are continually disrupted by violence but who learn through these wonderful stories that a different, peaceful Afghanistan is possible once again for themselves and their families.
2 small children in Afghanistan holding Hoopoe books
3 young Afghan girls holding copies of The Wisdom of Ahmad Shah (Dari-Pashto edition)
2 small children with Hoopoe books
Classroom of Afghan boys with copies of The Wisdom of Ahmad Shah
Classroom of Afghan girls with copies of The Wisdom of Ahmad Shah

Children in Nangarhar province receiving Hoopoe books from Moska Mobile Library.

This year the Children’s Book Foundation is focusing on distributing books to areas that are particularly difficult to reach. As their founder Saber Hosseini says, “When I hand the books out to them, I can see their excitement and joy.” 

4 Afghan girls with copies of The Woman and the Eagle
Afghan children holding copies of The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water

Hoopoe Books being distributed to immigrant children in Mirza Olang Valley (Mirza Olang Valley of Sayyad district, Sar-e Pol Province).

Hoopoe books delivery by bicycle

Children in the northern provinces of Jowzjan receive books for the very first time.

Afghan girl holding the book Fatima the Spinner and the Tent
Wesa distributing the book Fatima the Spinner and the Tent to Afghan children

Books being distributed by Mr. Attaullah Wesa from the Qalam Lar Civil Society to children of Maidan Shahr center of Maidan Wardak province. As he says, we are  “equipping the children with education, across the country.”

Nine Trust In Education Libraries Now Have Hoopoe Books

A set of Hoopoe Books are now being read by visitors to nine libraries established by Trust In Education (TIE). TIE founder, Budd MacKenzie, tells us that around 700 children use these libraries everyday six days a week.

TIE recently established a girl’s class in Lalander—the only class for girls there!  All 30 students registered were given a set of Hoopoe titles to take home and keep, but only one set per family. They look very happy to receive these beautiful storybooks!

2 happy Afghan girls with Hoopoe books
Afghan girls in classroom with Hoopoe books
Afghan girls in classroom with Hoopoe books

Lalander now has a girl’s class, thanks to Trust in Education. How happy students are to have storybooks of their own!

Hoopoe Books at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair

Hoopoe Books displayed on a table at the Bologna Children's Book Fair

We owe a very big “Thank you!” to Eva Devos, President of IBBY Belgium, who made sure that Hoopoe bilingual books were displayed at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in April this year.

As Dr. Devos points out in her article ‘I can read this, Miss! It’s my language!’: Reflections on a multilingual reading programme in Flanders, Chapter 11 of Children’s Literature in a Multiliterate World the availability of books that address minority cultures: 

  • lets children be the experts; the usual roles are reversed, and their knowledge of their maternal language becomes an asset, not a problem
  • creates opportunities to reinforce the place of maternal languages at school, which has been identified by research (e.g., Pulinx, 2017) to have a positive effect on children’s identity and self-confidence
  • stimulates language and cultural awareness, and curiosity about and opening up to other cultures, for all children, not only children from backgrounds with different languages and cultures
  • encourages parental involvement in the school life of their children, offering opportunities for teachers and parents to get together in schools. Furthermore, it leads to cooperation between teacher and parent in which the parent is the expert when talking about the country they came from, and when sharing a book from their own country in their own language

For all these good reasons, if you can help the distribution of our bilingual books in English, German and French paired with Dari, Pashto and Urdu, please do let us know. And if you can encourage your friends to write reviews of Hoopoe Books in English, or any of these languages, on the appropriate Amazon site that would help us enormously. Thank you!

Hoopoe’s Minority Language Books Available Online in Afghanistan

Darekht-e-Danesh (Knowledge Tree) Online Library has now added our 12 Hoopoe Books in the Sawji-Pashto bilingual edition to their resources. This is in addition to all of our Dari-Pashto bilingual books and Teacher Guides and 4 titles in Munji-Dari. They plan to include the other seven minority language editions in the near future.  

As long as the library continues, Hoopoe books and Teacher Guides will always be available to read and download. 

With the extreme lack of educational materials available to teachers in Afghanistan in their own languages, the online library can make a huge difference. It encourages teachers to consult a wide variety of resources in their practice, to use these tools to adapt their own, and to share with other educators. For more about the program visit https://youtu.be/bF5dpED9W64.

The library is the work of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan who also recently put Hoopoe books into readers’ hands through their Afghanistan Reads! adult literacy program.

Our Books for Afghanistan program continues to be valued by Afghans, who are only too aware of the psychological effect of violence and extremism their young children are exposed to every day.

Too Many Primary Schools Have No Books

It’s hard for us to imagine, but many schools in Afghanistan have absolutely no books at all for their students. The Omar Foundation’s goal is to partner with KOR-Hoopoe to correct this in as many primary schools as possible. In collaboration with Helmand Education Department, they have begun to distribute Hoopoe books to schools in Nad Ali district.

Students in Zarghoon Kalai school
Happy students in Zarghoon Kalai school reading Hoopoe books
Happy student in Zarghoon Kalai school reading Hoopoe books
Happy students in Zarghoon Kalai school reading Hoopoe books

“Students in Zarghoon Kalai school in Nad Ali hadn’t seen books in their school and were very happy and excited with books they were reading for the first time.” —Moh. Omar Lemar, Founder and Director of the Omar Foundation. 

The district’s Education Department Director, Sharafuddin, wanted to be sure to thank us and convey how important it is for children to have at least one book to learn from. He asks us to not to forget the many children in Helmand province for future, most welcome, book donations.

Moska Mobile Library: Waheed’s Story

English translation of the video:

My name is Waheed, I polish shoes in the streets. I have only been able to go to school until grade 2. Then my father, who was the breadwinner of the family got a massive health problem and went under surgery as a result of which he can’t work now. I have two other brothers and myself, we are all young but have to work to provide for my family. However, we do allow our sister to go to school and she does not have to work. She is in grade 5. I would love to go to school, but cant because I have to work. I came here to borrow a book, a colorful one with a good story to read.

Good News From Helmand Province

These days Helmand province appears often in our news, but mostly with tragic news of Taliban insurgents and conflict. It is so good to learn that, in spite of safety concerns, 2,000 Hoopoe books are currently being distributed throughout the province thanks to Saber Hosseini’s mobile library.

Afghan kids holding up Hoopoe books
Afghan girls holding up copies of The Old Woman and the Eagle in a classroom

Thanks to SAMAR, one thousand copies of the Sawji-Pashto bilingual edition of The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water were printed

Group of Afghan kids holding up copies of the Sawji-Pashto edition of The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water

Wahdat Mena, Chapharhar District, in Nangarhar Province, is home to approximately 200 families of Saw people. The children were excited to see that The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water was written in their own language.

Afghan kids crowd around waiting to receive a copy of the Sawji-Pashto edition of The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water
Afghan kids crowd around waiting to receive a copy of the Sawji-Pashto edition of The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water
Afghan kids crowd around waiting to receive a copy of the Sawji-Pashto edition of The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water

The Saw children of Qala Khily in Behsud District, Nangarhar Province crowd around eager to receive their own copy of The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water. A small girl (in orange) managed to get to the front of the distribution and receive a copy, and perhaps, will share it with her family.

Hoopoe Books Keep Children Reading During the Winter Months

Afghan schools are closed during the cold winter months but during that time hundreds of children like these girls and boys have access to free Hoopoe books through Moska Mobile Library.

Happy girls and boys with Hoopoe books thanks to Moska Mobile Library.

Afghan Book Bike Tour

See a young girl’s reaction to receiving her own copy of Hoopoe’s The Wisdom of Ahmad Shah a legend about the father of modern Afghanistan. She says “I got this book and I’m very happy about it. I was delighted to get it, and I will read it at home. And I hope that in the future, I’ll be somebody in the world. I’ve never seen such kindness before.” 

Please help us provide more books for Idries Siawash as he travels Afghanistan on his bike handing out free books to young people across the country.

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