Togo

To remedy the low literacy rate among the very young population of Togo, BSF and the General Council of Yvelines, within the framework of decentralized cooperation,  implemented in 2010 a project to support the construction of a network of five public libraries in the Prefecture of Lakes. . 

In 2010, the Prefecture of Lakes included five libraries at Aného, Agouégan, Aklakou, Afagnan, and in the traditional chiefdom of Dagué. However, these libraries had very limited  resource collections – a few hundred works – poorly suited  to the public; their staff was poorly trained or not trained at all. They did not have access to library material suited for combining and preserving works. The catalogues were managed by hand and all the libraries lacked electricity. 

The program led by the Departmental Library of Yvelines, with the help of Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (Libraries Without Borders), has permitted the development of these five libraries in terms of book collections, notably African ones, personnel training, and income-generating services that allow for the financial independence of these libraries. 

To that end, BSF selected and sent 2,000 works in October of 2010 to Togo. This donation was made possible by book purchases from local bookstores and publishers. The books went hand in hand with equipment acquired for library management, development, and support of African book collections along with the implementation of money-making  services in the libraries in order to provide for an annual working budget.