About ABDO

ABDO was started in 1995 by Talent Nyathi who was inspired by her friend Doris Lessing. Her aim with the organization was to make information available to the people living in the rural areas of Zimbabwe: by creating libraries and providing them with books. 16 years later ABDO has come a long way in pursue to spread information. 194 libraries have been started and in 2010 over 60 000 books were provided. When starting up a library the community is involved to choose community librarians who are then

trained by ABDO. This makes the libraries more functional and user friendly.

ABDO are also encouraging the formation of study circles. Study circles are forum for discussion and problem solving at local level. Study circles also engage in knowledge and skills acquisition and they put these into practice when they do income generating projects like poultry, peanut butter, sewing, bakeries and garden projects. ABDO provides the study circle with capital assistance when projects are started. Material inputs like feeding trophies, chickens feeds, day old chicks, butter making machines, flour, clothing materials and so on.

HIV and AIDS study circles has also been founded both to promote the awareness and also to support orphans of parents who died of the sickness. A study circle is formed and takes social responsibility for some children. They provide food, schools fees, school uniforms and medication to mention a few. An example is

Khulisani Study Circle

of Tsholotsho which looks after 3 orphans.  

ABDO also works with gender and environmental issues. With study circles and work shops people have been made able to talk about gender equality and the women have come to participate more in the communities. Since women have been marginalized for a long time most gender projects seek to redress gender imbalances and women’s involvement in various activities. Also when it comes to finding a person to lead the local coordinating team, ABDO strives to find both men and women. 2009 50% of the leaders were women. When it comes to environmental awareness ABDO works with educating people in the rural areas about the consequences of  environmental degradation such as  cutting down trees, panning for mineral, bush fires and clearing land for agriculture  to mention but a few.

ABDO’s mission is to promote literacy, cultural diversity to encourage initiatives for sustainable individual and community development through the provision of educational materials, establishment and support of study circles.

ABDO envisions vibrant communities that actively participate in their development through empowerment of the marginal communities in Zimbabwe.