Welcome to Books for Afghanistan

The beginning of education is literacy. The fundamental need is that girls and boys in their homes and in schools have access to quality books, which foster a love of reading and a taste of what reading and learning can offer them.

IN 2006 THE AFGHAN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION ENDORSED HOOPOE BOOKS

In 2006 Hoopoe Books in partnership with KOR obtained permission from the Afghan Ministry of Education in Kabul to “repatriate” traditional tales from the region, retold especially for children by the Afghan author and educator Idries Shah.

Called Teaching-Stories by Western educators, the values and experiences preserved in these ancient tales means that they not only serve as building blocks to literacy, but help to provide positive internal narratives for children who have seen nothing but war, violence and loss.

These stories help create a bridge that makes education more acceptable to conservative elders who recognize these tales from their own childhood.

WE HAVE PRINTED AND DISTRIBUTED OVER 5.3 MILLION HOOPOE BOOKS IN VARIOUS BILINGUAL EDITIONS: IN UZBEK-DARI, TURKMEN-DARI, DARI-PASHTO, SHUGHNI-DARI, NURISTANI-PASHTO, HAZARAGI-DARI, SAWJI-PASHTO, MUNJI-PASHTO, PASHAI-PASHTO AND IN ENGLISH. OUR PARTNERS DISTRIBUTED THESE THROUGHOUT AFGHANISTAN, AND TRAINED 550+ TEACHERS (teacher trainings are currently curtailed through lack of funds.) Read the results of a US Government independent evaluation of our program.

The Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2030 recognize that access to education is a human right and vital for the sustainability of all development and peace. Yet, according to UNESCO:

Prior to August 2021 – 85% of women have no formal education and are illiterate: that is over 13.7 million individuals. 
Only 40% of Afghan girls attend elementary school, and only one in 20 girls attend school beyond the sixth grade.

Now UNICEF estimates that:
3.7 million children are out-of-school in Afghanistan – 60% of
them are girls.

OUR SOLUTION

Give a young girl a book of her own, and she will find someone to help her read it.

PLEASE DONATE NOW!

To help us provide more children with beautiful illustrated books of their own.

Help Books for Afghanistan at No Cost to You!

You can do that anytime you make an online purchase from Amazon, just by using the AmazonSmile program. Simply make all of your Amazon purchases at smile.amazon.com (which is still Amazon, with the very same products and prices) instead of amazon.com – to do this, simply click this link to set your Amazon account up so that the Hoopoe Share Literacy Fund is the recipient charity (Books for Afghanistan is an HSLF program). From then on, AmazonSmile will remember to automatically donate 0.5% of your eligible Amazon purchases to HSLF, at no extra cost to you!