EDUCATION INFORMATION CULTURAL 2017 ANNUAL REPORTDIVERSITY 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY BIBLIOTHÈQUES SANS FRONTIÈRES Table of Contents Libraries Without Borders (BSF): 10 year anniversary A WORD FROM OUR CHAIRMAN Patrick Weil - Page 5 AN INTERVIEW WITH OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Jérémy Lachal - Page 7 Overview Page 12 A 10-year Timeline Page 14 Our Tools Page 8 Map Page 24 10 YEARS OF ACTION Page 26 Emergency, post-conflict & peacebuilding Page 28 Education & cultural diversity Page 38 Entrepreneurship & social transformation Page 59 10 YEARS OF ADVOCACY Page 64 10 YEARS OF ACCOUNTABILITY Page 74 3 10 YEARS OF ACTION to include the intellectual needs of populations in need. Our second area of intervention is reinforcing the role of A Word from libraries as major actors in the fight against inequality and construction of democratic citizenship. Our third area of intervention is promoting social innovation and Our entrepreneurship in library spaces to create economically sustainable models with a strong social impact and Chairman incubators for social projects. Patrick Weil « For 10 years we have For a decade, Bibliothèques Sans Frontières has worked defended the idea that tirelessly to reinforce the autonomy of the most vulnerable people in the world by improving their access to cultural access to information, education, and culture. Since resources is a fundamental our founding, we have defended the notion that culture is a fundamental human right that promotes autonomy, right as well as a strong critical thought, and democratic civic dialogue. Libraries are epicenters for the material forms that culture takes. promoting agent As such, they are critical to advancing equality in a of freedom, critical thougth world where access to information and education (or their absence) serve as markers of inequality. Whether and democratic dialogue. » material or virtual, static or mobile, public library, Fab Lab, or MakerSpace, the library of the 21st century is first and foremost a communal place for learning, discovery, and creation. It is a place where people can access the tools they need to find answers to the questions that are most relevant to their realities. Libraries are spaces of both To maximize our impact, we rely on our expertise, create individual development and collective exchange, where tools that build off this expertise (e.g. the Ideas Box and people can let their imaginations flourish, build new social IdeasCube), and develop programs such as BSF Campus, relationships or learn to participate in civic life. Code Travelers, or Khan Academy in French. These resources add value to the work our partners are doing Bibliothèques Sans Frontières’ efforts focus on three on-the-ground. As facilitators, we aim not to interfere in types of interventions that illustrate the diverse impact the work of our team and partners in the field, but rather of libraries. Our first area of intervention is humanitarian work beside them to magnify their impact and bring their emergencies, post-conflict settings, and peacebuilding services to the people who need them most. contexts. In these cases, we focus on providing psychosocial support, protection and educational opportunities to vulnerable groups. On a macro level, we work to broaden traditional notions of humanitarian aid « As facilitators, we aim providing services to those in need, BSF also advocates to ensure that libraries always have a place in the public not to interfere in the work debate, both in France and internationally. For instance, our Ouvrons + Les Bibliothèques campaign resulted in concrete of our team and partners changes on behalf of both the French government and local institutions, which led to expanded opening hours at in the field, but rather work French libraries. Similarly, our l’Urgence de Lire campaign beside them served as a worldwide call to put culture and education at to magnify their impact the heart of humanitarian aid efforts. While BSF has grown very quickly over the past decade, and bring their services we have remained true to the principles on which the to the people who need organization was founded. As we strive to innovate, we will also continue to foster autonomy and resilience and them most. » promote democratic engagement in civic life among the people with whom we work. In his lovely ode to libraries published in the New York Times, Indian author Mahesh Rao reminded us of journalist Sophie Mayer’s description of libraries as “the ideal model of society, the best possible shared space,” where “each person is pursuing their own aim (education, entertainment, affect, rest) with respect For the past ten years, we have supported more than to others, through the best possible medium of the 500 libraries and trained over 3,000 librarians around transmission of ideas, feelings and knowledge — the book.” the world, supporting five million beneficiaries. With Bibliothèques Sans Frontières will continue to expand over 50 Ideas Box projects implemented in emergency access to these transformative spaces to the corners of the and post-conflict settings, we have given nearly 50,000 world that need it most. refugees access to tools that can help them rebuild their lives and prepare for the future. With more than 2 million people using Khan Academy in French, 70 people enrolled in the Code Travelers program, and nearly 20 Ideas Box projects deployed in French territories abroad, we are fighting inequality on multiple fronts, especially in terms of access to education and culture. In addition to Ideas Box deployed in the French city of Marseille with local partner Acelem - March 2017 © Acelem/Marseille 6 10 YEARS OF ACTION In 2013, we started investing ourselves more in digital material, particularly digital education. This was another Interview major turning point for BSF. By adapting Khan Academy in French and launching the Code Travelers program, we hoped to change the role of libraries in the 21st Century. with the By providing free access to information and developing innovative learning strategies, libraries are powerful tools Executive for transforming societies. Thanks to their mobility, digital literacy programs are now at the heart of our intervention Director strategy in both France and around the world. Today, over 2 million people are registered on the French Khan Academy, Jérémy Lachal while every month, new Code Travelers clubs are created in France and abroad. Over the course of 10 years, BSF has gone through Lastly, I’d like to mention a founding partnership in the quite an evolution. What has shaped BSF into the history of BSF, which we established 8 years ago with the organization it is today? Center for Reading and Cultural Action (CLAC) in Yaoundé. This associative cultural center does remarkable work The key moment in BSF’s history was the terrible throughout Cameroon and its founder, Charles Kamdem, earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince, Haïti in January succeeded in putting culture at the center of a project for 2010. As an organization, we realized the fundamental economic and human development in that African nation. role libraries could play in crisis situations. We will never This partnership has been particularly enriching for BSF be able to sufficiently thank our Haitian partners, who because the CLAC made us think about the entrepreneurial inspired us to work in displaced person camps. They are dimension necessary for libraries in the developing the ones who silenced critics of the necessity of libraries world. Together, we experimented with models of social in times of crisis. Experience has shown us the importance entrepreneurship to guarantee the libraries’ sustainability of libraries when everything has collapsed. The immense and built the conditions to ensure that access to education success of our makeshift libraries, got us interested in and information would be as widespread as possible. The the context of humanitarian aid and made us realize that wonderful work we did together led us to create the BSF culture, education, means of communication and access to Campus program, which trains librarians in West Africa for information are often forgotten when it comes to providing social entrepreneurship, and to think of a project for Ideas aid to those in need. Based on this experience, we launched Boxes deployed by social entrepreneurs all throughout the Urgence de Lire campaign and, with the help of Philippe Senegal. Starck, created the Ideas Box. We later intervened in the African Great Lakes region, the Middle East and European refugee camps. We most recently intervened in Colombia in regard to the ongoing peace negotations with the Farcs. 7 In 2017, what remains of the organization you helped delicate work of building shared visions with our partners. found in 2007? This complexity is what makes our work so fascinating. BSF has considerably evolved in 10 years. Gradually, the organization has, become more impactful, and deeper. Still, At the heart of BSF’s mandate is reinforcing autonomy what is most important remains. and the most vulnerable persons’ agency. How can we pursue this mission in contexts as diverse as the First, our vision. The unique conception we have of the peacebuilding process in Colombia, the Syrian crisis role of libraries, culture, education, and information in the in the Middle east, or in low-income neighborhoods in development of humans and society. The more we grow, France? the firmer my belief grows that libraries are wonderful tools for reducing inequalities and favoring autonomy, The world is undergoing massive changes: social and freedom, and citizenship, and that cultural diversity is an economic crises, the rise of cultural isolationism, increasing incredible asset in building tomorrow’s world. inequalities and new risks tied to digitalization and Internet, the historical magnitude of forced displacements Then, there is our original pioneering spirit. We threw due to conflict, natural disasters and climate change. In this ourselves headfirst into this adventure, hoping to context, information and education are becoming major tackle issues, invent new models, deconstruct and then markers of inequality.