The United States Government, through USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development), is giving 385,000 children storybooks to the Ministry of Education and Science (MOES). These books will be delivered to 900 public primary schools across the country. The delivery of books was made official on September 26, 2019, at an event organized by USAID and the MOES.

These books comprise 55 different story titles for primary grade students and are written in the Kyrgyz and Russian languages. The books include fairy tales, fiction stories, and poems.

This is the second book donation USAID has made to the MOES this year. The first donation of 110,257 books was delivered over the months of March and April 2019. Under its Time to Read project, USAID plans to print and distribute a total of 1.2 million books in Kyrgyzstan by 2020. 

"I would like to note that all books are published hereб in Kyrgyzstan, and most of them are in Kyrgyz language. We are working with local authors, publishers and illustrators to publish high-quality books," said USAID/Kyrgyz Republic Mission Director Gary Linden during the ceremony.

According to Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic Nadira Dzhusupbekova, the best authors, proofreaders, and other experts were engaged in selection and publishing of these books. "The most important thing is that all this work is receiving positive feedback from our young readers and their parents," she said.

The USAID Time to Read program is a $9.9 million investment over four years designed to improve the reading skills of primary grade children. It is being implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic.