The library on wheels

Every Wednesday afternoon, a retired teacher named Tran Van Duc loads about two hundred books onto the back of an old pickup truck and drives to the villages outside Dong Hoi. When he parks under a tree near the school gate, children run over before the engine has even stopped.

Mr Duc, 68, started the project two years ago. After he retired, he noticed that the nearest library was nearly twenty kilometres away, and few families had a spare book at home. 'Parents here work in the fields from dawn,' he says. 'They have no time to take their children to town.' So he asked his old colleagues for books and paid for the truck's shelves himself.

The system is simple. Children can borrow up to two books for a week, and nobody has to pay or sign anything except their name. Most of the books are picture stories and comics, but Mr Duc has also added a few cookbooks and farming guides for the parents. Last month a boy of ten asked for a book about fish, and the next week he came back and explained to his friends how a catfish breathes.

The project is not without problems. During the rainy season, the roads become muddy and the truck cannot reach two of the villages. Some books also come back with torn pages, or do not come back at all. Mr Duc does not seem to mind. 'A lost book is probably being read by someone's cousin,' he says with a smile.

Recently a local company offered to pay for fuel, and two university students have joined him as volunteers. They help the younger children choose a book and read the first page aloud. Mr Duc hopes to add a third route by the end of the year. 'I will keep going as long as the truck does,' he says.