ARTICLE

Libraries and children: holding hands towards Freedom

Starting on the basis that reading is a factor for social inclusion and development, Movement for Peace also devotes itself to dynamize libraries and to promote reading among children and teenagers in Palestine.

Movement for Peace, together with Tamer Institute for Community Education, is conducting a program dedicated to the encouragement of reading in Palestinian Occupied Territories. By means of strengthening and dynamizing local libraries, we foster the learning through reading and playing, and this also strengthens creativity and critical attitude among children. Libraries become a communal meeting point, promoting thus social cohesion and values such as social integration and solidarity.

In addition to the support to library activities, we are working on awareness of literacy as a value, as well as on the training of librarian in order to motivate them in their professional activity. Reading and libraries turn into an instrument for social cohesion, capable to promote individuals to act as leading characters in a developing society.

Interview to: Nisrin Gazal

“Stories from Nablus: learning to love literature among children”

Nisrin Gazal, graduate in Law, 27 years old, has been working for a year now as a project coordinator in Nablus for the Palestinian organization Tamer. By means of the support of Movement for Peace, this organization is developing a dynamization program for ten libraries in the municipality of Nablus. Nisrin is in charge of organizing and coordinating activities for children, teenagers and mothers at selected libraries. For Nisrin working in Tamer doesn´t mean just to put her abilities into practice through working together with children, teenagers and women, but also to learn from them everyday.

- What does it mean for the Tamer Program to work in a context like the one in Nablus?

Nablus is a city in the northern West Bank. It suffers, until today, the imposed conditions since the second Intifada; for example, it is all closed because of the three Israeli checkpoints. That causes a very difficult socio-political situation, with a very high rate of unemployment among young people and many restrictions to the movement which make difficult to have access to utilities such as schools, hospitals, working places, etc… Because of that, the Tamer program is focused on the dynamization of libraries on the poorest areas, such as refugee camps, the Nablus old town, etc., or rural hard-to-reach areas beyond the strict checkpoints. That means that the program has to adjust to the new daily challenges of the socio-political context.

For example, one of the selected libraries is located in Beit Furiq, a close town whose access is strictly forbidden to anyone who is not registered as a resident there; as a coordinator for the project I had to register Beit Furiq as my place of residence in my Identity Card, just to be able to access one of the libraries of my daily work. The positive thing about working on these areas is the success of the program: libraries are becoming recreational and learning areas for children, places for expression and for sharing experiences for women and, in a general way, social places that dynamize life in many villages and areas without such places.

- ¿Por qué se seleccionaron determinadas zonas o bibliotecas en Nablus?

Las bibliotecas han sido seleccionadas teniendo en cuenta unos criterios que priorizan la atención no sólo al mayor número de participantes posibles, sino también, como comentaba anteriorimente, por las condiciones de acceso a actividades de lectura. De esta forma, los tres campos de refugiados y la ciudad antigua de Nablus han sido seleccionados por su nivel de pobreza y de carencia de espacios de juego. Otras han sido seleccionadas por el aislamiento a las que están sometidas, ya sea tras puestos de control o cercanas a asentamientos israelíes que dificultan tanto el acceso como la salida. Finalmente, algunas bibliotecas se han seleccionado porque tienen amplia participación infantil y disponen de unos mínimos recursos, y de esa forma se garantiza un mayor impacto y sostenibilidad de las actividades.

- Why were selected particular areas or libraries in Nablus?

Libraries have been selected according to criteria which value not only the number of possible participants but also, as I said before, general possibilities of access to reading activities. It is so that three refugee camps and the old town of Nablus have been selected because of their poverty and lack of play areas. Some others have been selected due to their isolation, whether because of checkpoints or because of being too close to Israeli settlements that make difficult their access. Finally, some libraries have been selected because of the high degree of involvement by children and because of their means, which guarantee a major impact and the sustainability of the activities.

- What is the impact of Tamer program on the society?

Working with children and women affects to the families and to the society in general on a positive way. It is important to provide women a meeting place where they can freely express themselves, owing to the fact that there is a lack and a need of them. This creation of spaces is vital for the proper running of families and society. The workshops that Tamer offers are structured taking into account the preferences and suggestions of the attendants. The topics that we speak of are very varied: teenagers comprehension, typical problems during childhood, children rights, or topics specially relevant for women as sexual transmission illnesses, relations within the marriage or the couple… Many women appreciate to speak about this topics on an open way, but respecting privacy.

- Have you noticed any change along these five months since the project is being implemented in Nablus?

Yes, the program has been fully accepted, specially among groups directly benefit from it, as children and their mothers. For instance, in the case of Asira, where there was not library, we have not only promoted the library through different activities, but fostered the social activity of the entire population. From the very beginning, women have participated in the workshops, and due to the fact that there were not any kind of precedents, it became normal that they attend the library as a meeting point. Additionally, the activities make that children want to go more to the libraries.

In the case of the old town, the librarian, each time that organizes an activity, phones me to tell me that is impossible for her to close the library, because the children do not want to go. This also affects to the level of motivation of librarians, when they realize the acceptance from children. These professionals have received a specific training of 50 hours in techniques of promotion of participation and cataloguing. Their involvement on the project is very high, and they even voluntarily organize activities, only to see children enjoying.

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