Abdelhaq Elkouar: A Good Reader... Is a Good Leader
Abdelhaq Elkouar is an English teacher and tutor at the New High School in Erfoud, which has been an especially under-resourced location. FatimaZahra, on our team, introduced us to Abdelhaq, after he built bookshelves at his school in "hopes of having books one day." We started with one box of books for Abdelhaq's classes in early 2016 and have continued sending books ever since.
In 2018, we worked with Abdelhaq on a comprehensive library for their whole school. The school donated an old storage building for the purpose, and community members in Erfoud converted the building into a beautiful space for a freestanding library and comfortable resource center.
"Maybe one of the hardest things to do is to try picturing in words what simply can't be, and this is to me what it means to talk about how a package of books has changed the world around me, starting from my classroom to other classes and teachers, even people outside school, all of whom keep asking me to share with them books I got from Barb. Books, they have only heard of their titles, if ever, but want so much to lay hands on to enjoy reading them...
Imagine a school without a single book on a poor shelf! That WAS my school... so keep imagining, creating a class library in a school where there is no place called library. A package of books was really enough to make change and allow students here to READ… to LEAD!! Everyone is breathing books, and that IS my school now...
What might seem to be a little for some is really a treasure to others. Thanks to the great initiative of the Morocco Library Project, the world is changing here for a better reading community."
