Azezo community library and internet café This exciting new project is the only new public facility being built in Azezo with the support of the entire local community. The vision is to provide a safe, quiet, clean place for children, including blind children, and especially girls, to study, access books, periodicals and newspapers whilst also giving an alternative to their poor housing to older retired people.
We, with lots of voluntary support from the community, have completed the foundations and the walls and roof will be completed this summer but can you help to raise £30,000 towards the next phases?
Library Inauguration
The library inauguration took place on 28th October 2011. Despite some frustration that the shelves and tables and chairs were not in place and the electricity despite being a mayoral priority and many visits to the Electricity offices still needed the final work to be undertaken. Having accepted a minor setback our local Azezo library committee worked tirelessly to ensure everything else was in place...they even borrowed tables and chairs from the high school to display the books, PCs and photocopier! It is hard on paper to write about the total enthusiasm and the fun day we had on the 28th October.
So many people helped to make it a success from Aysan’s mum who insisted on making the ambasha for the invited guests at the library, Hibritu who made ambasha for later at St Raphael’s school where we had a wonderful buffet lunch and coffee ceremony and who organised scissors, bread cutting etc, the sisters at St. Raphael’s’ who helped so much and prepared the children’s dining room for over 129 guests for lunch and gave Jean a beautiful dress for the day to ensure that she was distinguished from the other 12 ‘forenge’ visitors, our committee worked non-stop carrying, generators, benches etc that the keble loaned us, our library staff who organised a lovely coffee ceremony, the gymnastic group and cub-scouts who entertained us.
Even Dashen brewery provided us with copious amounts of beer for the lunch! It is difficult to name everyone because so many helped. Dr Gashaw even donated a gift of 15 chairs.
We were so lucky to have many friends from the UK, Addis and Gondar with us for the day. 180 were invited to the actual library where soft drinks, coffee, popcorn and ambasha were served and then 129 were invited to a buffet lunch at St Raphael’s school.
We need to continue to pay the revenue costs until July [end of June 2012] when the keble will take over and if we are to senda container with more books we still need your help.
