Sapana

A Library for Nepal

It’s nice to see you here on our website. We would like to introduce you to our fulfilled dream of opening a library in Nepal.

Let’s begin with some facts about Nepal. If you end up wanting to know more, you can find further information about this fascinating country under the category About Nepal.

Let’s get started

With less an average daily wage of three Swiss Francs, Nepal is one of the poorest countries in Asia. The level of education is low and many remote villages only have difficult access to information and knowledge. The few public libraries lack organisation and books that meet the needs and interests of the community.

In relation to the 40,000 schools in Nepal, there are only about 1’500 libraries. This number got our team thinking.

With our project we wanted to make it possible for more people to have access to books and knowledge.

In this video we show you where and with which local community we will realized this project:

Which goals did we reach already?

We defined our goal of opening a library in Nepal with children’s section in Khoramukh by these three main criteria:

Access to knowledge

One of our main goals is to improve access to helpful information and knowledge, because education is an important component for the development of a person and their full potential. Due to the lack of educational opportunities in the countryside of Nepal, many villagers are moving to the cities. With this project we wanted to give the community of Khoramukh and the surrounding villages a tool to improve their own village, as well as to promote cohesion and the “We can do it”- culture.

Of the 1’600 books in the library are 60% in English and 40% in Nepali. The books were selected based on the interests and suggestions of the community and the inventory is constantly expanding. The reading material was mainly collected through book donations from private individuals or book publishers.

Books open the door to knowledge and are a way to a better future.

Community

The library was established in the existing community building, where children, young people and adults will have access. There is a children’s area so that familymothers can also find time to visit. In the blog post “The library location” we are happy to give you deeper insights.

The library should not only serve to lend books, but should also be an interesting place to get together and exchange. It can be used for storytelling sessions, instrument lessons, play afternoons and so on. The exchange between locals, professionals, teachers and students of a village is enormously important.

Sustainability

Sustainability is one of our principles. Our goal is that the library can be taken over by the local community and thus be run independently two years after the opening (end of 2025). Accordingly, we want to create a solid basis for a project that can be implemented sustainably and for the long term. To make this possible, a library committee was set up to jointly take care of many of the tasks that arise. The committee takes important decisions based on the interests of the community.

In order to keep the library up to date, we have employed three librarians who, in addition to the daily management, also organize community workshops and new books, for example.

That this wage, the purchase of new or damaged books, further education courses, electricity and all other running costs can be covered, ideas for a sustainable source of income are currently being compiled. The committee and Sapana are currently discussing the construction of a fish pond or the purchase of an off-road jeep that could be used for emergency or general transport, for which there is a great need in Khoramukh.

Whenever possible, we relied on local partnerships for implementations, e.g. involving painters, carpenters and electricians from the local community.

The municipality of Khoramukh offered to take over 10% of the project costs and to provide the infrastructure for the children’s area from their own resources. This expresses a great deal of interest and commitment on their part and is an elementary component of sustainability. Our project has also been approved and recognized by the local authorities.

The construction of the library was carried out hand in hand with the local population.

Timeline