What a super story coming out of Khorog, Tajikistan today.

Street Libraries [ru] are being opened in this small and remote mountainous town, a wonderful initiative led by local social organization Umedvor with financial support from corporate success story Pamir Energy.

Two of the libraries are up and running in central Khorog, with a further eight planned in other locations in the town in the near future. Each mini library will hold a range of fiction and non-fiction books in Russian and English and everyone is encouraged to come and borrow a title.

The libraries are built like a closed phone booth in a design that will be familiar to Canadians, where they are often found dotted around residential areas.

But these Khorog libraries go one step further as they all feature free USB charging points! Come to charge your phone, stay to read a book (and if you like it, take it home for a day before returning it).

The aim of the project is to enhance a reading culture and encourage a shift in attitude towards books as sources of information.

This is a brilliant initiative that any town in the world would benefit from. Congratulations to Umedvor and Pamir Energy for making this a reality in Khorog.

Update on Dec 8th: if you are on Facebook, please like/follow Umedvor’s English/Russian page. They have a great photo album showing the Street Libraries in action!

Could you help?

I am looking into the possibility of shipping books from the UK and Canada to support the Khorog Street Libraries. This will involve sourcing good quality English language books and getting them at low or no cost to Khorog.

Ideas (and books) welcomed! Please use the Comments box below.