By Muska Hamidi
Did you know that books can turn lives around?
To demonstrate this to you, I wrote down the story of an Afghan boy named Ahmad.
Ahmad was a fifth-grade student when his father was murdered in front of him by unknown assailants. The shock of this bitter event caused Ahmad to lose his ability to speak.
After his father’s death, his mother took on the responsibility of caring for him and his siblings. However, economic problems and Ahmad’s silence made living conditions difficult for his family and especially for his mother. She took him to several neurologists and psychologists for treatment, but it did not help. For a whole year, he didn’t speak to anyone, not even to the dearest person in his life, his mother.
Not wanting Ahmad to become isolated and withdrawn, his mother sent him to school, where his teachers and classmates made every effort to help him regain his health. But their efforts only resulted in Ahmad being barely able to tolerate the school hours, waiting to be excused without speaking to anyone.
However, when the Charmaghz Library started its activities in this school, after two months of effort by the teacher of this library – and driven by Ahmad’s interest in books – he began to speak again. This surprised his classmates, teachers, and even his mother. People around him couldn’t believe that he was finally able to talk and overcome his psychological barrier.
For further information about the Charmaghz library, here are some excerpts from their website:
“In 2018, as snow was falling from Kabul’s sky, a small dream named Charmaghz was born in our beautiful mountainous city. Charmaghz is a Kabul-based NGO. We turn old public buses into mobile libraries, promoting critical thinking, and providing a space for children to read, think, and ask questions. We started with one library and today, we have four mobile libraries and one education mobile cinema. Since 2018, we had 210,000 visits, making us the most visited library in Afghanistan!”
“Charmaghz’ s solution to low-quality education and lack of children’s libraries is to turn old public buses into mobile libraries. These libraries visit specific neighborhoods based on a pre-determined schedule to offer children a space for a wide range of activities including reading, debate and play. Charmaghz’ s mobile buses are a cost-effective solution – one bus can visit multiple localities or schools each day, providing services to several groups of children.”
For further information, please go to https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/support-mobile-libraries-in-kabul/
Note: The photo used in this post was also taken from the site of this organization.
Originally posted 2024-03-16 18:04:01.