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Kenya’s Camel Mobile Library Service uses camels to bring books to the Northeastern Province, where the literacy rate is 14.7%. Regular visits to up to a dozen locations are made before returning home. Reading has benefits, including reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s and increasing empathy. People in India read twice as much as those in the UK and US.
Kenya relies on “ships of the desert” to address lack of access to books in some of its more remote regions. Residents of the Northeastern Province, which has a literacy rate of just 14.7%, can borrow books that are brought to them on camelbacks, thanks to the Camel Mobile Library Service. Camels are a necessity because bringing reading material to the province’s nomads (mostly ethnic Somalis) means traveling great distances through difficult terrain. The mobile lending library regularly comes in the form of three camels: one to carry the books, one to carry the tent for the temporary library, and one extra, in case of problems. They visit up to a dozen locations in the region before returning home to Garissa or Wajir headquarters.
The benefits of reading:
Studies suggest that people who read regularly are two and a half times less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
A study by the University of Buffalo showed that reading fiction makes people more empathetic and more open to new emotions.
On average, people in India spend about twice as much time reading (10 hours a week) as people in the UK and US.
