The goal of building & managing libraries is to facilitate access to books, educational resources, technology as well as a conducive and safe space for people living below the poverty line.
As you may be aware, 736million people are living below poverty globally with a large percentage of them living in South East Asia and Sub Saharan Africa. Nigeria was recently designated the poverty capital of the world with 53.5% of her population living below $1.50 / day while 87% lives below $2.50 / day.
Amongst many others, limited or no access to educational services is a consequence of poverty because POOR PEOPLE do not have disposable income nor access to quality social amenities. Unfortunately, the governments in the regions and/or countries with large population of poor people have not been able to provide access to quality and practical education hence leaving swaths of people (especially children) without basic literacy, numeracy skills as well as ICT skills.
Therefore large populations of people (especially children) are coming of age without the necessary skills to fit into the formal workforce / economy and earn a living for themselves. This state of affairs has made these victims easy recruits for criminal activities, banditry and terrorism.
Hence the need for this intervention
At our libraries, users or community members are exposed to basic literacy, numeracy and ICT Trainings, which improves their chances of being integrated into the formal economy and earn a livelihood.
We also host book and games clubs as well as mentoring sessions to equip users with life skills.