Omid, Library of Hope

Read with Me established Omid Library in Bashagard, Hormozgan and started its activities in June 2019.

Bashagard is located in the east of Hormozgan, 300km from the center, surrounded by villages. Because it is far from the center and lacks asphalt roads and basic amenities, Bashagard is considered as one of the most deprived areas in Hormozgan. To arrive at Bashagrd, one must pass bumpy, meandering roads with dangerous gorges for hours just to see the deprivation with one’s own eye.

In Bashagard, education and health standards are extremely low. Because of the distance and hardships of getting to school, a lot of the students, girls in particular, don’t have the means to continue their education form 6^th grade onward.

Sardasht, the center of Bashagard region, has by far been the most geographically suitable place for establishing a “Read with Me” library. After having finished 6th grade, all Bashagard students come to Sardasht to continue their studies. “Omid” is the first library ever built in this city. It is located at a boarding high school with more than 200 students, 13 to 16 years of age. 120 of the students are from nearby villages and live in dorm rooms.

In Omid library, in addition to holding Reading Aloud sessions, some students take Read with Me quality books from the library to their villages and lend them to children there. These teenage librarians have participated in a one-day workshop on reading promotion and how to use Read with Me book packages.

Following the first steps of this project, more than 500 quality books for different age-groups, with a variety of genres and subjects were provided for the library.

Omid library was established by the supports of Ms. Ramezani in memory of her father.