Get a mobile library to refugee camps in Greece

Hello globalgivers,

Here is Giulio, one of the coordinators at ECHO and I want to tell you a story.

Since I took over from our amazing Keira in May, our work has been, essentially, rocking up to a handful of ‘refugee camps’ around Athens with our library van. The van, that we kitted out ourselves, has wooden shelves, drawers, stools and corner sofa, and around 1,000 books in 12 different languages. We have Harry Potter in Farsi, and Zorba the Greek in Arabic, children's books in Sorani and Kurmanji (the two main Kurdish languages) and the Lord of the Rings in Turkish, together with hundreds of books from Afghan, Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese, Pakistani authors… We open the backdoors of our van and set up our outside space: tables, rags, chairs and bench, a rack with printouts of language learning resources, and all the materials needed for our activities with children, teenagers and adults. Quick tidy up of the van, turn the string-lights on if it’s dark, and our library is open. A bit like the TARDIS, it’s bigger from the inside than from the outside, transforming a white metal box into a temporary community space, where people can sit, check out our collection, read some pages, loan and return books, escape from a dire reality, but also have a chat, bring tea and biscuits, discuss the weather, the latest rejection to their asylum application, or the books they wish to read; speak their native language or try to learn Greek, English or German. Our role, as much as we can, has been to facilitate the use of this space, making sure that it is welcoming and safe for everyone, that the van is roadworthy, with enough fuel and with people inside with the right skills. Books are essential, but so are the volunteer librarians, the backbone of our library.

Ideally our library wouldn’t need to exist, or at the very least we would meet our readers in much more positive environments. ‘Refugee camps’, whatever the living conditions, remain in Europe the major obstacle to inclusion, being the incarnation of a separate society, with different rights, different rules and less freedom. 

Now, if possible (and yes, it is possible), things have worsened considerably. It doesn't exactly come as a surprise: over the past two years, the work of our library has become increasingly difficult. On the back of the pandemic, refugee camps in Greece have become even more secluded than they were before. A new process of registering NGOs and groups working with people on the move with the Migration and Asylum Ministry has been implemented, for the security of everyone involved – we’re assured.

At the same time, new “modern” camps have been discussed, planned, built and now, 'finally', open. Modern, in this case, has a very peculiar meaning: 8ft high concrete walls have replaced metal fences; biometric turnstiles let people in and out after checking fingerprints (very modern, isn’t it?), remotely directed cameras look over the camps population, with alarms that go off when too many people gather together. But also, camps are now the only place where you can apply for asylum, and (almost) the only place you can register for financial support (which has been interrupted altogether for the past 3 months).

The registration of NGOs, or the actual lack of it, made sure that fewer and fewer groups are allowed to get in touch with people stuck in these camps. Already over the last 18 months, we had lost access to some of the camps where our readers live. We still visited them, finding alternative and creative solutions.

The point that 'our service is unnecessary' is disproved by the constantly high number of books loaned and returned, the requests for new books and materials, the participation in our sessions.

2022 started quite sadly, with an increased presence of security guards at the gates of the camps, with a further limitation to the freedom of movement of the residents. And with an increasing number of camp's authorities refusing us access to the camp's premises..

Our van doesn’t stay still, it continuously goes around, adapts and finds solutions, parking lots, back doors, community spaces, trying to maintain the bridge we built with our community of readers across Attica. 

Thanks for all the support we received throughout 2021

Keep supporting us through this new year!

In 2021, our library held 194 sessions

- 1814 books were loaned

- 1281 books were returned

- more than 2300 language resources were distributed

Links:

• Our brand new website!