For the refugees

Mini libraries

In light of the chaos in which the refugee children are living, Assabil decided not to distribute books and toys to children, but to instead make them available to the children in an area where the children can come. We are in effect trying to set up « mini libraries » at each of the refugee centers.

Reading to children and much more

Association members and librarians are organizing a number of book-related activities for children. In the morning, the focus is on story-telling ; in the afternoon, kids get a chance to draw and paint, sing nursery rhymes, etc. We make supplies available to kids and let them do what they want—to give them the opportunity to express some of what they are feeling and thinking.

Theater

Najla Khoury and Joumana Behlok have been working on a theatrical production with some of the refugee children that will be performed for parents on Sunday, August 6th and then taken « on the road . » We are planning to organize performances in as many of the refugee centers as possible.

The First Steps toward Literacy

We’re working not only with children, but with adults too and are offering basic literacy classes to women who are interested.

For the volunteers

Training

In response to requests from volunteers who wanted advice and suggestions on what types of activities they should organize at the centers, Assabil organized several training sessions. The first session took place on the last Sunday of July in the Bachoura Library for 32 participants. Najla Khoury, a founding member of Assabil, showed volunteers how to make games using recycled materials.

Three other training sessions took place on August 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

On Sunday, August 6th, there were two additional sessions : Joe Haddad, a member of Assabil’s Administrative Committee, tackled several important issues including how to share public spaces, how to develop trust among the members of a group, and worked with the participants to think about how to encourage people to live and work together under difficult circumstances. A second session by Joumana Behlok offered suggestions on how to organize activities around books for young children. Assabil is also planning to identify and train volunteers from among the refugee population so they can become activity leaders themselves.

Distribution of pedagogic materials

With the support of OSI and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, we are providing games, toys, books, paper, pens, materials for arts and crafts—whatever we can to support the activities that are taking place at the centers.

Services available at the libraries

Assabil members are providing advice, support, encouragement, and are volunteering their time in support of all of these activities. We are using the facilities at the Bachoura Library—the books, photocopier, telephone—to support our activities. One of our staff members who works at the Geitawi Library is working every morning at the Refugee Center in Karm el-Zeytoun in addition to working at the library two hours a day.