International Day of the Girl Child + Books

Today is the first ever International Day of the Girl Child (UN announcement). This year's theme, ending child marriage, is directly related to our refugee camp library project. As you may know, in the Darfuri refugee camps in eastern Chad, formal education ends at primary school. Because girls do not have an opportunity to attend secondary school in the camps, they are at a greater risk for very early marriage. This is one of the reasons our library in Iridimi Refugee Camp will stock many secondary school books. We hope that the library can offer secondary school-age children an opportunity to continue learning, and provide a source of higher knowledge for their informal teachers. The library will include secondary level textbooks both from the official Sudanese curriculum and other curricula, secondary level fiction and non-fiction for free reading, and English and French languages courses aimed at this age group. Thanks to your support, girls in the camp might be able to focus on their education a little longer and avoid the dangers of early marriage.