骆驼图书馆为肯尼亚游牧儿童送书上门
In the vast, sun-scorched stretches of northern Kenya's Turkana region, a nine-year-old boy named Ekuom squints at the horizon. It is not the occasional truck or the distant mountains that catch his eye, but a slow-moving line of camels. Each animal carries a wooden box strapped across its hump, and inside those boxes are the things Ekuom treasures most: storybooks with worn covers, simple maths workbooks, and a brightly illustrated guide to the human body. Every two weeks, this unusual caravan emerges from the haze, transforming a patch of sand beneath a thorn tree into a busy outdoor classroom.
The Pages on Hooves initiative was born from a stubborn fact: roughly four out of every five people in Turkana live a nomadic or semi-nomadic life, moving with their livestock to find water and pasture. Building permanent schools that children can attend year-round is almost impossible in such a landscape. Instead, the project, launched by a Kenyan non-profit, decided to let the library come to the children. Three librarians now travel with nine camels along circular routes, reaching over a dozen settlements that rarely see any other formal service. Each visit lasts a full day, giving young learners enough time to swap books, complete a guided lesson, and practise reading aloud with a patient adult.
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