ABDO's Background

Africa Book Development Organization (ABDO) is a learning organisation, grounded in community wisdom and activism. Reflection and action are key to the plans developed and implemented. Its delivery strategy is co-creation, collaborative, teamwork, and respect for the communities with whom they engage.

In the difficulty environment, ABDO is one of the leading civil society organisations in Zimbabwe that has made milestones in community development. It was founded 30 years ago and is operating in five of the ten provinces of Zimbabwe with over 15,000 direct beneficiaries and a spinoff +/-200,000 people, through 196 resource centres, 15 farmers’ movements and 7 new schools and 1 renovations of tobacco barns to classrooms. Midlands has 2 schools, one primary and one secondary school. Mashonaland West has 3 Secondary schools, including one renovated and two primary schools.

Originally registered as the Africa Book Development Trust (ABDT), ABDO was founded by Ms Olita Talent Nyathi who serves as its patron, with support from Doris Lessing who donated the initial £10,000 (Ten thousand Pounds) that was used to start the first rural libraries and study circles groups. ABDO was registered in Zimbabwe under the Private Voluntary Organizations Act (No. 63 of 1966) (Chapter 17), 1996 Revision, and registration number 039/05, (becoming an “Organisation” in compliance with government legislative requirements of and to foster financial and other resource mobilization. The vision of ABDO is to use access to information and engage with communities to facilitate “SELF-SUSTAINING COMMUNITIES”. Its mission is to “Enhancing the capacities of local communities through study circles, adapt transformative methods for sustainable development.

Talent ‘Ntombi’ Nyathi, is a Zimbabwean born radical feminist, civic activist, an international grail woman. She found Africa Book Development (Trust) now Organization based on her rural experience of book shortage is schools and lack of safe spaces for women to dialogue and find their voices. She is development practitioner whose activism is grounded in the more than 30 years of working as a facilitator of development education and practice. For over a decade she was a director of development conscientization processes with Training for Transformation, a Freirean methodology for development practitioners, civil society activists and organization whose focus is to achieve justice. She has facilitated development dialogues globally with United Nations Development, the European Union, and the World Bank to note but a few.