Al-Fadheela school’s students said that the restructuring of the library will make them more enthusiastic about reading.

With assistance from the British Council, the principal of Sana’a’s Al-Fadheela School have renovated the school’s library and made it much more suitable for their young female students.

The “I Love My Book” campaign aims to provide Yemen’s schools with proper libraries and to instill a love of reading in children and students.

Primary schools in Yemen generally lack sufficient libraries for their young students while other schools have no library at all.

It’s very rare to find well-designed libraries with appropriate books for children.

At Al-Fadheela School, dozens of students, aged 13-16, were absolutely thrilled to see their library’s attractive new design, with ornamented pink shelves holding new books.

The jubilant students said that the restructuring of the library will make them more enthusiastic about reading.

Student Mona Al-Ameri, 15, said, “We will find ourselves in this library. Students who want to be doctors, journalists, engineers or lawyers can find what they need here.”

Al-Ameri also went on to say, “I expect that the number of readers will highly increase. The new design makes us keener to read... The library’s books are better than what we have in the boring curriculum.”

“I Love My Book” campaign members aspire to provide most schools in Yemen with small but interesting libraries.

Elham Al-Gohali, program assistant at the British Council, said that the outcome of this event was really encouraging for all the parties involved with the project.

“I was so amazed by the work and efforts of the ambassadors of the campaign, and of the librarians and principal of Al-Fadheela School. They were very innovative and creative in developing their library. We hope this will happen in all schools we work with.”

Principal Jamila Al-Samman told the Yemen Times that the old library was not good enough for students and pointed out that the number of students turning out for the new library has increased, even during breaks.

To encourage more students to read and discover their talents, Al-Samman said that the school has created special times for students to read and that they are urged to borrow books and read them at home.