Hundreds of children from Herat schools will get to read their favorite books as often as they like after a library opened in the province.

This is the first of its kind for children in Herat. 

Residents in the province welcomed the move and said libraries will help their children to learn and also that it will help promote the culture of reading books.

"Good books in Dari and Pashto have been collected here. I am happy that I could do this for the children," Jawed Zargham, deputy head of Herat’s Department of Information and Culture. 

According to Herat’s Department of Information and Culture, a number of people in the province have donated books to the library.

"Nearly 2,500 books are in the library which comes under two categories: story books for children and educational books for children," said Habiburrahman Mirzayee, chairman of Herat’s public library.

A number of children who are deprived of schooling due to poverty have said that they would like to go to school.

"I have to earn money to take to my mother to buy bread," Shahram, one child said.

According to reports, thousands of children across Afghanistan are still deprived of an education.