Education: A Library on Wheels and the Little Prince
A mobile library in the Negev Desert in Israel and a Bosnian school with one student demonstrate the value of education.
Library on Wheels
In the Negev Desert in southern Israel, Palestinian children delight at the sight of a rickety old truck pulling up to their villages. The truck brings the children books, education and a connection to the world.
Access to education is a challenge for these children who are cut off from government-funded schools and face a scarcity of educational resources and a lack of libraries.
But Yousef Sanea found a way to mend the gap. He filled a truck with books and now travels around the Negev villages in his mobile library.
“The first day I brought the truck, I couldn’t sleep because people kept walking past it in front of our home wondering what it is. They didn’t know what a mobile library was,” Sanea explains.
Now Sanea reaches more than 700 children across the region, teaching reading, writing and Palestinian history.
“I want this dream of mine to start and never end,” he says.
Little Prince
In the village of Ocevija, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the local school has just one student, 10-year-old Anto Kresic. The school stays open just for him and teachers come every day to make sure Kresic gets all his lessons.
“An old saying says that the early bird gets the worm,” Kresic tells Al Jazeera. “I get a chance to see something new and gain a nice experience.”
Every day, Kresic leaves his family in their remote farmhouse and makes the journey through the forest to his school, occasionally stopping to rest.