Niger: Library in Arlit

A winning partnership

The City of Arlit and the AREVA Foundation have joined forces to construct a library in Niger.

Local partners handled the building’s construction adjacent to the Youth and Culture Center, the librarians’ salaries and operating costs (water, electricity).

For its part, the AREVA Foundation:

• purchased the collection, which is made up of 15,000 volumes largely oriented toward children and adolescents,
• provided furniture for the building,
• financed 2 months of theoretical and practical training in France for 2 young locals with college degrees. This training was followed by an internship in a library in Agadez, Niger,
• furnished a workroom.

Sharing a love of reading

From that point on, these young people were responsible for creating, managing and operating the library, primarily for the benefit of children in the poor neighborhoods of Arlit. A program of academic and extracurricular activities is being developed with teachers.

Objective: to make the library an essential meeting place for the young and old.

As one enthusiastic trainee said, “For us, the library will be a way to help school children in need and to help adults develop a love of reading.”