Burundi

BACKGROUND

LWB began implementing the Ideas Box the African Great Lakes region in February 2014. Three Ideas Box have been deployed since in partnership with UNHCR in Congolese Refugee camps in Burundi: in Musasa, Kavumu and Bwagiriza and one mobile Ideas Box is shared between two communities in Makamba where returnees have settled  with support of the UNDP.

After only 6 months of operation, the feedback from the field was very positive. With over 24,000 visits in three months and nearly 3,300 registered users, the first two Ideas Box deployed to refugee camps in Burundi (Kavumu and Musasa) have proven hugely successful.

Community ownership of the device, its decisive support of education and the protection of children is already a certainty. Already, a fifth Ideas Box deployment is foreseen, and preparatory tasks for the expansion of the program to the DRC and Kenya took place in 2014.

BENEFICIARIES

• The refugees living in the camps of Musasa, Kavumu and Bwagiriza (approximately 15,000 people)
• The youth from the village of Makamba

Financial partners

Executive partners

BACKGROUND

TV5Monde cultural centers are a leading network in the promotion of cultural activities in Burundi. They allow the public to come to learn French and connect to the world. The arrival of the Koombooks in 4 of these centers (Bujumbura, Ngozi, Gitega et Bururi) will help revitalize the work already being undertaken in these centers by providing new and quality contents suited to different audiences, and as a result, transform them into must-go to places to learn about new technologies in Burundi.

ACTIVITIES

• Equiping four TV5 Monde cultural centers with KoomBook kits
• Training the personnel to the use of Koombook kits

PROJECT OBJECTVES

Global

• Respond to the digital divide that exists in many educational and cultural institutions.

Specific

• Promote French culture.
• Allow the TV5Monde cultural centers to become the leading venues to learn about new technologies in Burundi.

EXPECTED RESULTS

• 4 TV5 Monde cultural centers are equiped with Koombook kits.
• TV5 Monde cultural center staff are trained to operate the Koombook kits.

BENEFICIARIES

• High school and university students and professors; civil servants

Partners

Context

The RIGL is a young and developing network that links 24 universities in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda. The sustainability of this network relies on the standardization of governance practices but also on educational content and information resources.

Actions

• Standardization of practices in regards to the management of information and of documentary resources
• Promotion of interuniversity research that standardizes indexing and cataloging practices and allows for the establishment of a communal collection catalogue
• The elevation of librarians’ abilities by promoting the exchange of good practices and knowledge
• The promotion of academic excellence at the university level by pooling documentary funds and by proposing resources that are rich, varied and complementary within the network

Librairies Without Borders will oversee the structuring of this network by organizing a training seminar for the head librarians of member universities.  This seminar will allow librarians from 24 universities to gather, to learn of work opportunities within the network and to develop frameworks together.

Apart from the standardization of governance procedures, the sustainability of this network requires centers in all countries to reinforce student exchanges between the three countries.  Along with the implementation of these courses of excellence, LWB will join forces with its partner universities in order to develop the centers of specialized documentary resources in the concerned domains.

Objectives

• To develop training capacities, research and access to documentary resources within RIGL
• To develop access to documentary resources that support the area of excellence.
• To ensure the training of RIGL library directors in preparation for the creation of a network of RIGL university libraries.

Actions

• 3 documentary resource centers were created in connection with the area of excellence chosen by RIGL.
• A training seminar was organized in preparation for the creation of a network of Great Lakes university librairies.

Beneficiaries

• The RIGL university library personnel who benefited from training and networking of their librairies.
• The 150,000 students and the lecturers/researchers at the 24 RIGL member universities who benefited from better access to resources and to information.

Financial Partners

Executive Partners