Cultural ODA Project, "Thank You Small Library"
The “Thank You Small Library” project is a representative cultural ODA project implemented by the Korean government and the private sector. This project aims to contribute to cultural diversity by improving people’s reading environment in target countries and thus increasing accessibility. The target countries include underdeveloped countries in Africa such as Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Mozambique. This project is carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, and the UNWTO ST-EP Foundation, etc.
The pilot project began in two locations in Ghana in 2007 and expanded to build and support 17 locations in Ghana, Tanzania, and Mozambique in 2010. Between 2011 and 2012, seven small libraries were built in Ethiopia. Fifty-eight small libraries were built in nine countries as of the end of 2013. This has laid the foundation to promote the diversity of cultural expressions.
Other cultural ODA projects include the Arts and Culture Education ODA Project which was jointly conducted by KOICA and the Korea Arts and Culture Education Service in 2013. This was a project targeted at middle and high school students in Lao Cai, a province of the mountainous northwest region of Vietnam. The project also provided arts and culture education programme planning and methodology to students at the Lao Cai Teachers’ Training College in 2013 and 2014.
$884,534.91