Education and knowledge acquisition is crucial for all members of society, no matter one’s age, occupation or socio-economic status. Reading is one of the most fundamental methods of learning, and of developing listening, comprehension and language skills, among other things.

Teach for Armenia, one of Ayo!’s established partners, has received many requests from their teaching fellows in different communities asking for support to refurbish and renovate the libraries in their schools. While most of the schools in these communities already have a dedicated library space leftover from the old Soviet days, they are literally falling apart due to mold and leakage, and rotting, decrepit books. Also, most of the libraries lack proper lighting, bookshelves, tables and chairs. Teaching fellows are very concerned that their students show little to no interest in reading, and their schools have no real way to help spark such an interest.

To combat this rising problem, teaching fellows from 17 different communities decided to take change into their own hands and make an effort to update and refurbish their school libraries to provide both books and spaces for reading and reading-related activities, with the goal of ultimately sparking their students’ interest and curiosity for reading.

Ayo! is very excited to be part of this initiative and to support each of the fellows who are living and teaching in these communities. By providing them the resources they need most to rebuild their libraries, we are ultimately empowering them to better help their students gain an improved education.

Because the specific needs of each school’s library vary, we have included the total budget amount for each school below. Individual items are detailed in the budget breakdowns. With your support, Ayo! will be able to provide all 17 schools with what they need.