Donkeys are being used to cart books around the Ethiopian countryside as part of a literacy campaign.
The donkeys are not just a gimmick – in rural Ethiopia and provincial towns like Awassa, horse-drawn buggies and donkey carts are a normal form of transport.
But the project also tries to teach the children about respect for animals.
Donkeys here are generally despised and often ill-treated, but these two working donkeys wear the colourful embroidered trappings usually reserved for riding horses.
Northern Kenya, in contrast, has camel libraries. Speaking of camels, we’ve just missed the Pushkar Camel Fair. But I wonder if we’re too late for the camel ice cream.
Here in Colombia we also have “biblio-burros” (mmm it might be something as donkey-library). I’ve heard about them since a long time ago (more than 5 years I think) and they also are mobile libraries which visit small towns in the northern departments of the country.
Here are some links to this project:
http://biblioburro.blog.com/
http://elbiblioburro.blogspot.com/