CNN’s Top Hero of the Year Includes Children’s Librarian
By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 10/10/2008 2:41:00 PM
There’s another election coming up—and this one involves a fellow librarian.
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Yohannes Gebregeorgis |
After fleeing to the U.S. in 1981, Gebregeorgis put himself through library school and became a children’s librarian at the San Francisco Public. While there, he was asked to purchase books in various languages, but he was unable to find titles in any of the more than 83 Ethiopian languages.
With the help of author Jane Kurtz, who grew up in Ethiopia as the daughter of missionaries and who has written children’s books set in the African nation, Gebregeorgis raised $10,000 through read-a-thons, book sales, donations, and several matching grants, thanks to members of the First Presbyterian Church in Grand Forks, ND.
The church, along with assistance from the San Francisco Public Library, also collected 15,000 new and used titles for a book center in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa—all of which led to the first free children’s library there.
Gebregeorgis ended up writing his own children’s book, Silly Mammo (African Sun Press, 2002), the first bilingual Amharic-English children's book, the proceeds of which helped him in 1988 to establish Ethiopia Reads, a nonprofit organization that creates libraries for Ethiopian children, publishes books in English as well as local Ethiopian languages, and shows teachers and librarians how to connect kids to books.
In 2002, after nearly two decades in the U.S., Gebregeorgis left his job and his home in the states and returned to Ethiopia. He brought 15,000 books donated by the San Francisco Children's Library with him and opened the Shola Children's Library on the first floor of his Addis Ababa home. He is now the executive director of Ethiopia Reads.
The winner, who will receive $100,000, will be announced during CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute on November 27. The deadline to vote is 6 a.m. EST November 20.
