EBCEF (ee-bee-sef) is a grassroots non profit/non government organization geared toward bringing literacy and literacy related resources to Ethiopia.
The mission of ETHIOPIAN BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION (EBCEF) is to develop a reading culture in Ethiopia by connecting children with books.
EBCEF will advance, promote, and encourage children's book publishing, reading, and literacy in Ethiopia.
Immediate goals are to:
a) Keep the doors open of the first free children's library in Addis Ababa (this costs $83.00 per day).
b) Coordinate Book Week Celebration in Ethiopia in April of each year.
c) Publish books in Ethiopian languages, based on Ethiopian culture and history, for Ethiopian children in Ethiopia and those born outside of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is a country with a strong tradition in oral story telling and an ancient history and written language, components that inspire a literate book loving culture. However, the literacy rate in Ethiopia is extremely low and the number of Amharic books available, especially for children, is devastatingly small. EBCEF believes that no child should need to do without the resources and joy that books bring.
EBCEF is working in both the United States and Addis Ababa to accumulate the necessary resources to realize this dream. EBCEF is an on going project that can always use support and volunteers! Please feel free to browse through the web page to learn more about our organization. Sign our guest book to let us know you're interested! And contact us for more information on what you can do to help. www.ethiopiareads.org
EBCEF is a 501 c (3) non-profit organization established for the purpose of promoting children's book publishing, reading, literacy and the development of education in Ethiopia.
The funds for EBCEF comes from private donations, from grants and fund raising activities. Your contributions are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
SilverChicks.com is a proud supporter of EBCEF. We currently have three books for sale on our website that are being sold to directly benefit EBCEF. All monies go this great organization.
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SilverChicks Supports the Ethiopian Books for Children and Educational Foundation
(PRWEB) June 11, 2005 -- SilverChicks.com, a small web-based bead and jewelry business that specializes in beads from the African trade and handmade, ceramic Kazuri beads from Kenya has started working with an American based non-profit organization which operates the only children's library in Ethiopia. The owners of SilverChicks.com have a strong love and deep interest in the Horn of Africa.
This organization, EBCEF, the Ethiopian Books for Children and Educational Foundation was founded with the purpose of increasing the literacy rate of children in Ethiopia and to create excitement about reading and encourage the pursuit knowledge.
Yohannes Gebregeorgis, a native of Ethiopia, learned to read in his village school in high school classes taught by Peace Corps volunteers. He fondly remembers the first book he held in his hands outside of school, at the age of nineteen. Yohannes later came to the United States as a political refugee, where he earned a master’s degree in library science and became a children’s librarian at the San Francisco Public Library. One of his duties as the children’s librarian was to purchase books in various languages to further develop the resources of the library. He was surprised to discover that, despite a large Ethiopian population in the San Francisco Bay area, he was unable to find books printed in any of the Ethiopian languages.
Recognizing the importance of reading for children in his native country, he organized a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, the Ethiopian Books for Children and Education Foundation (EBCEF) in 1998.
As Yohannes worked to develop his project, he contacted American author Jane Kurtz who has written books for children set in Ethiopia. Jane had grown up in Ethiopia, where her parents worked as missionaries. Near that time, Jane had been asked to help explore global missions at First Presbyterian Church in Grand Forks ND. Yohannes and EBCEF quickly came to mind and knowing first hand the power of books to open minds and to change lives, members of the First Presbyterian church enthusiastically joined Jane, her family and the librarian in accomplishing the dream of books in the hands of Ethiopian children.
Jane Kurtz is now EBCEF’s board of directors and has led this grass-root non-profit through its first step: publishing a picture book for Ethiopian children in 2002. The book "Silly Mammo" is the first bilingual book ever published, written in both English and Amharic. It is one of the few books at all published in an Ethiopian language. The text was done by Yohannes Gebregeorgis and the book design and editing were donated. "Silly Mammo" is used as a fundraiser for EBCEF.
Yohannes Gebregeorgis once again resides in Ethiopia where he is playing a very active role in changing the future of his homeland. April 7, 2003, was opening day for the Ethiopian Children’s Book Center, the first free library for children in Addis Ababa, a city of more than three million people. Established in a poor neighborhood with no safe spaces for play, reading or art activity, the center consists of two tented reading areas and three indoor reading rooms available free of charge to children eighteen and under.
The library has seating for up to 126 children and houses approximately 15,000 books on a variety of different subjects and reading levels, some in Ethiopian languages. Currently nine staff members keep the center open and running. The center is alive with storytelling and reading programs, arts and crafts days, movies and a theater program in addition to children quietly reading.
The library originally opened in the basement of Yohannes' house then expanded to fill the whole building with additional tents set up in the yard to make space for all the children who come. Over 40,000 visits have been made to the library since its opening in April of 2003.
Children from all over the neighborhood come to use the facilities to study, do their homework or escape with a good book. This is the first free library service for children in Addis Ababa and, according the principal of the neighborhood school, an indispensable resource. It is hoped that the reading center will serve as a model for Ethiopia and other African countries.
A $20,000 grant from the Presbyterian Women’s Thank Offering provided much of the first year’s operating expenses. Now in the second year, the library’s operation relies on income from book sales, church partners and donations. It costs $83.00 USD each day to keep this library open, and there are many more plans and dreams for the potential for EBCEF.
Catie Dupont and Valissa McGuffee, owners of SilverChicks.com, happily offered their website as a virtual shopping cart to help raise funds for EBCEF to help keep the dream alive. Catie had the privilege of living in Ethiopia and seeing firsthand the impact that EBCEF is making in teaching a new generation to feel true hope through literacy.
SilverChicks.com has established a cash donation option on their website. Additionally, they are selling three books that have been donated to EBCEF on the site. “Silly Mammo”, “Only a Pigeon” by Jane and Christopher Kurtz, and “Saba: Under the Hyena’s Foot”, written by Jane Kurtz for the American Girl, Girls of Many Lands Program, is available for purchase. All monies received from the sales of these books go directly to EBCEF and its current and future projects.
Should you have further questions, please visit the EBCEF website at www.ethiopiareads.org. To purchase books in support of EBCEF, please visit www.silverchicks.com. For more information on author Jane Kurtz, visit www.janekurtz.com.
Ethiopian Book and Children’s Educational Foundation (“EBCEF”)
Background and Plan
1. Mission
To improve literacy and create a culture of reading among the children of Ethiopia by:
• providing quality reading materials, as far as possible in local languages, in accessible locations with encouragement and support
• publishing attractive books in local languages
• promoting literacy and reading.
2. Current Operations
Most of EBCEF’s work to date has been on establishing a single library and associated facilities that is now a center of excellence for children’s library and reading facilities in Ethiopia.
In April 2003, EBCEF opened a free public library, the Shola Library, for children in a poorer neighborhood of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The library is open 6 days a week, provides a safe environment to children and young people aged 4-18, seats 126, has around 15,000 books in local languages and (at this stage mainly) English catering to all ages and has a range of supporting services provided by trained librarians, library assistants and volunteers (reading, theatre group, storytelling, English classes, reading prizes etc). The Shola Library has close links with local public schools, which have no books except textbooks, and has become an important resource in the local community. The library is operated by a team of 5 (including security), has had around 60,000 child-visits in the last year and is running smoothly.
Additional related projects undertaken by EBCEF:
• Designing and piloting “tent libraries” to take a selection of books to different neighborhoods in Addis Ababa, making them available with a library assistant for a few days. This was successful in pilot, funding has been obtained from donors to fund 3-4 simultaneous projects and the implementation is currently being decided
• Publication in 2001 of a bilingual illustrated version of a classic Ethiopian children’s story, “Silly Mammo”. This has been used to raise funds for EBCEF. A reprint is now underway, co-funded by the Canadian government and EBCEF, with many copies to be donated to schools in Ethiopia.
• Instituting “Book Week” in Ethiopia, during international children’s book week, with poster and media campaigns to promote literacy and reading as a high priority for children. This took place in 2004 and 2005, and is likely to be focused on a poster campaign in schools in the future.
• establishing the Golden Kuraz award for the best new children;s book published in Ethiopia. This was awarded for the first time this year.
• hygiene program for a selected group of the poorest children allowing them washing facilities and haircuts on the compound on Saturdays (this was undertaken at the encouragement of a donor funding the library operations, with additional funding to cover it)
3. Organization, People and Resources
EBCEF is a foreign nonprofit registered with the Federal Government of Ethiopia, and was audited in December 2004 for the first time, as required by law.
The team running local development and operations is employed by EBCEF (Ethiopia) and comprises:
Executive Director & Founder – Gebregiorgis Yohannes
Secretary - EBCEF
Bookkeeper - EBCEF
Library Manager – trained librarian responsible for library operations
2 Library assistants
Secretary/clerk
2 guards (day/night)
Yohannes is Ethiopian-born and brought up. He came to the US as an adult and trained as a librarian with a Masters in Library Science. He established EBCEF while he was working as a children’s librarian at the Fisher Children’s Center of the San Francisco Public Library. He is passionate about books, children’s literacy and the potential impacts of developing programs such as EBCEF’s in Ethiopia. He has published two bilingual children’s books for Ethiopian children. He founded EBCEF and moved to Addis Ababa with his children to start the library even before funding had been raised.
In the US, EBCEF is a non-profit registered in North Dakota. Its function is to plan, support and seek resources from individual donors and grant-making organizations to fund the operations of EBCEF on the ground in Ethiopia. Virtually all funds for operations have come through EBCEF in the US to date. EBCEF has a volunteer board, other active volunteers and fundraisers in the US and it has no expenses except communications (mailings, flyers and website costs).
Jane Kurtz is EBCEF Board President. She is a children’s author (writing books set in Ethiopia) and was recruited by Yohannes when he was trying to find support for EBCEF after founding it. Born and brought up in Ethiopia (as was her brother, Chris Kurtz, another board member and teacher and children’s author), with family in Ethiopia today, she is extremely motivated and has a food understanding of the issues in Ethiopia. She arranged the support of the First Presbyterian Church of Grand Forks, North Dakota,
where she used to live, recruited the board, and on her frequent book tours has been the leading fundraiser and finder of potential supporters
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