Causes: Children & Youth, Children & Youth Services, Education, International, International Relief, Libraries
Mission: Lubuto Library Partners is an innovative development organization that builds the capacity of public libraries to create opportunities for equitable education and poverty reduction. Its mission is to enlighten and enrich the lives of children and youth in sub-Saharan Africa, especially those not in school and highly vulnerable. Lubuto constructs enduring open-access libraries whose design is inspired by traditional and contemporary social, economic and cultural patterns and which freely offer comprehensive collections of well-chosen books and technology resources. These libraries serve as safe havens and are the center for dynamic library programming offering education, psychosocial support and self-expression through reading, music, art, drama, computers, mentoring and other activities. Lubuto maintains a continuous monitoring and evaluation learning relationship for children and youth library services. The impressive track record of the growing network of Lubuto libraries, owned and operated by Zambian organizations, provides a model poised to scale regionally. Sustainability has been central to all aspects of Lubuto's model since inception.
Results: The problem: The HIV/AIDS pandemic, conflict, systemic breakdown and poverty have left millions of African youth isolated from their communities and cast off. Looking forward, exponential population growth threatens to overwhelm the capacity to support the exploding numbers of children, including those with disabilities. Lubuto, teaming up with community-based programs has pioneered a model for addressing the problems of specific communities and countries. In the time since its founding as a grassroots initiative, Lubuto Library Partners has maintained a constant focus on learning from experience to increasingly meet its goals. With three currently operating libraries, the headline figures—over 1.5 million visits by 140,000 children, and over 20,000 program participants—point to both the extraordinary need and the potential for meeting it. The libraries, which are far and away the most heavily used in Zambia, have supported over 6,000 marginalized children and youth, and provided life-changing mentoring to more than 3,500 adolescents, including programs that kept over 1,500 girls in school and HIV/AIDS-free. Programs for young mothers and the deaf have brought neglected populations out of the shadows and into opportunities for growth. Lubuto knows its beneficiaries and has hundreds of stories to share about the lives it has changed for the better. Building on the foundation that it had established, Lubuto successfully pioneered the use of public libraries as a platform for programs that keep adolescent girls in school and HIV/AIDS-free with the support of a PEPFAR/DREAMS Innovation Challenge grant. Supported by this grant, we exceeded our target for re-enrolling girls in school by 172% and contributed to retaining in school all of the girls with whom we worked. We maintained, over a 2-year period, a 100% HIV testing and counseling referral completion rate by offering on-site testing and counseling. This experience also demonstrated the effectiveness of Lubuto Libraries as a platform for identifying excellent candidates for school scholarship support and for outreach aimed at reducing the vulnerability of teenage girls to transactional sex, and for changing views on gender-based violence.
Target demographics: We serve vulnerable African children and youth, ages 0 - 25, particularly targeting street children, young mothers and infants, orphaned and out-of-school children and youth.
Direct beneficiaries per year: Each Lubuto Library has more than 50,000 visits per year. The primary beneficiaries of the Lubuto Library Project are OVCY in targeted communities (identified in consultation with government and local authorities), including street children, out-of-school youth, OVCY who have experienced trauma, and those living in dire, isolated or exploitive circumstances.
Geographic areas served: SubSaharan Africa, starting in Zambia and soon to expand to Malawi
Programs: 3 times per week sign language storytimesZambian Language Literacy ProgramEnglish-language literacy programFamily literacy program with childcare for young mothersHealth and HIV programmingRole model mentoringTechnology & internet programming including information and digital literacy, codingFilm screeningsDrama Daily read-aloud programVisual arts Early childhood programTeen program
Mission: Lubuto Library Partners is an innovative development organization that builds the capacity of public libraries to create opportunities for equitable education and poverty reduction. Its mission is to enlighten and enrich the lives of children and youth in sub-Saharan Africa, especially those not in school and highly vulnerable. Lubuto constructs enduring open-access libraries whose design is inspired by traditional and contemporary social, economic and cultural patterns and which freely offer comprehensive collections of well-chosen books and technology resources. These libraries serve as safe havens and are the center for dynamic library programming offering education, psychosocial support and self-expression through reading, music, art, drama, computers, mentoring and other activities. Lubuto maintains a continuous monitoring and evaluation learning relationship for children and youth library services. The impressive track record of the growing network of Lubuto libraries, owned and operated by Zambian organizations, provides a model poised to scale regionally. Sustainability has been central to all aspects of Lubuto's model since inception.
Results: The problem: The HIV/AIDS pandemic, conflict, systemic breakdown and poverty have left millions of African youth isolated from their communities and cast off. Looking forward, exponential population growth threatens to overwhelm the capacity to support the exploding numbers of children, including those with disabilities. Lubuto, teaming up with community-based programs has pioneered a model for addressing the problems of specific communities and countries. In the time since its founding as a grassroots initiative, Lubuto Library Partners has maintained a constant focus on learning from experience to increasingly meet its goals. With three currently operating libraries, the headline figures—over 1.5 million visits by 140,000 children, and over 20,000 program participants—point to both the extraordinary need and the potential for meeting it. The libraries, which are far and away the most heavily used in Zambia, have supported over 6,000 marginalized children and youth, and provided life-changing mentoring to more than 3,500 adolescents, including programs that kept over 1,500 girls in school and HIV/AIDS-free. Programs for young mothers and the deaf have brought neglected populations out of the shadows and into opportunities for growth. Lubuto knows its beneficiaries and has hundreds of stories to share about the lives it has changed for the better. Building on the foundation that it had established, Lubuto successfully pioneered the use of public libraries as a platform for programs that keep adolescent girls in school and HIV/AIDS-free with the support of a PEPFAR/DREAMS Innovation Challenge grant. Supported by this grant, we exceeded our target for re-enrolling girls in school by 172% and contributed to retaining in school all of the girls with whom we worked. We maintained, over a 2-year period, a 100% HIV testing and counseling referral completion rate by offering on-site testing and counseling. This experience also demonstrated the effectiveness of Lubuto Libraries as a platform for identifying excellent candidates for school scholarship support and for outreach aimed at reducing the vulnerability of teenage girls to transactional sex, and for changing views on gender-based violence.
Target demographics: We serve vulnerable African children and youth, ages 0 - 25, particularly targeting street children, young mothers and infants, orphaned and out-of-school children and youth.
Direct beneficiaries per year: Each Lubuto Library has more than 50,000 visits per year. The primary beneficiaries of the Lubuto Library Project are OVCY in targeted communities (identified in consultation with government and local authorities), including street children, out-of-school youth, OVCY who have experienced trauma, and those living in dire, isolated or exploitive circumstances.
Geographic areas served: SubSaharan Africa, starting in Zambia and soon to expand to Malawi
Programs: 3 times per week sign language storytimesZambian Language Literacy ProgramEnglish-language literacy programFamily literacy program with childcare for young mothersHealth and HIV programmingRole model mentoringTechnology & internet programming including information and digital literacy, codingFilm screeningsDrama Daily read-aloud programVisual arts Early childhood programTeen program
5614 Connecticut Ave., NW, #368, Washington, DC 20015
202-558-5609
Children & Youth
Washington
