Sapana
a library for Nepal
It’s nice to see you here on our website. We would like to introduce you to our 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 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 1500 libraries. This number got our team thinking.
With our project we want to make it possible for more people to have access to books and knowledge.
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What is our goal?
We define our goal of opening a library in Nepal by these three main criteria:
Access to knowledge
One of our main goals is to broaden the horizons of students and villagers. What is possible in this world? We want to provide them with a tool to help them toward their dreams, to promote cohesion and a “we can do it” culture in the community. For the most part the books will be in Nepali, but we would also like to offer a variety of English books in the inventory.
We see books as an opportunity to provide knowledge on helpful topics in order to improve the lives within the community.
Books open the door to knowledge and are a way to a better future.
Community
We would like to set up the library in a school or community centre where students as well as adults can access it. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, we have not yet been able to determine the exact location of the library, as we have had to postpone our visit. We will definitely keep you updated as soon as we know more.
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. We want to create a sound basis for a project that can be implemented sustainably and for the long term. To make this possible, a library committee will be founded. Students, family members and other volunteers can help with daily tasks such as putting books away or cleaning the premises.
The committee makes important decisions according to the interests of the community. This will also make it possible to keep the library up to date.
After getting to know the community and its needs, we will decide together on a secondary project. This project will generate income for the running costs of the library. This could be the rental of a market place, a souvenir shop, a car for emergency transport from remote villages, the rental of kitchen utensils for religious festivals, etc.
Whenever possible, we will rely on local partnerships for implementations, e.g. involving painters, carpenters and electricians from the local community.
The construction of the library will be carried out hand in hand with the local population.
