Kathmandu, Feb. 18: Since November 2013, a bus has been travelling the country with books of various genres from around the world, aiming to provide a creative learning platform for young learners of urban and rural areas alike. Over the last nine years, this ‘library on wheels,’ sponsored by the American Embassy in Kathmandu and managed by the Satori Centre for the Arts, has travelled over 41,000 kilometres in Nepal and has visited over 550 schools, colleges and community centres and directly worked with over 280,000 people.

With a rather forthright name, Book Bus is one of the nine American spaces in Nepal and is the only one that moves around the country with books, laptops, iPads, projectors, sound systems, internet connectivity and art supplies, among other educational and stationery items, to give students an immersive learning experience, said Krisha Shakya, programme manager for Book Bus.
“In addition to the usual fiction and non-fiction as well as academic tomes, we also have books for exams like TOEFL and IELTS,” Shakya said, informing that all the books were provisioned by the American Library, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu.

But while books are a major part, Book Bus is much more than an initiative that simply hands out books to children to read. It seeks to introduce them to new concepts and ideas and according to Sachi Mulmi, communications specialist at Satori, it does this by engaging students in various workshops and training. “We conduct different workshops for students of different levels to hone the creative talents already within the children and make them critical and analytical thinkers,” she said.

These workshops include a ‘Read Aloud’ programme designed for young children of grades 1 to 3. Here, as the name suggests, the children are encouraged to read books aloud, in various tones and in the voices of the characters. “This is aimed at adding life to the words on the pages,” Shakya said.

Another one is the Civil Rights and Liberties programme for sixth to eighth graders where discussions, exhibitions and film screenings are held to introduce the participants to the concept of inequality and the importance of civil rights to institutionalise democracy, ensure protection of human rights and establish the rule of law to create stability, peace and prosperity.

During the pandemic, the Book Bus team also saw a need for media literacy and that led them to create, again rather directly named, media literacy workshop in 2020. “In today’s world, what we know is dependent on us being able to separate misinformation and disinformation from reliable and credible sources. That is what our media literacy programme is designed to support us to do,” Mulmi explained, adding that this was targeted to people as old as 30 years of age. “Because filtering content is a skill we all need.”

These sessions, which span in length from three days to a week, are not organised just for the sake of organising but are carefully crafted to help enhance the participants’ skills and make them productive members of the society, Shakya told The Rising Nepal. “That is why we try to involve the local governments in these initiatives and design them around local culture and lore to have maximum impact,” she said, adding, “We also make sure our instructors are adequately trained and conduct a series of mock sessions to iron out the details before going to the field for the actual workshops.”

Currently, Book Bus is also calling applicants for its year-long Creative Educators Programme seeking to engage 18- to 26-year-olds in creative arts and education. Participants selected for the programme will also work with the Book Bus as instructors in different communities and schools.

But for a space called the ‘Book’ Bus, aren’t all these programmes drifting away from its core objective? “No,” said Mulmi.
“Since its inception, Book Bus has sought to redefine books as a tool for knowledge and growth rather than pages bound between covers.”

In that sense, all of the initiatives could be considered books in different forms. And it plans to begin taking these books to students across Nepal once again should the COVID-19 pandemic situation improve; to expand access to knowledge and instil a passion for creativity and innovation – one learner at a time.