(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Child Guard’s Network, local civil organization, launched a travelling library project, a first in its kind initiative in the liberated areas, in the town of Azaz in northern Aleppo province, seeking to establish a culture of reading and reading lovers as well as to expand reading space between children.
Laila Hassou, supervisor of the communications department of the Child Guards network told Zaman al-Wasl that the library project targets children (age 5 to 15), whether in schools or in camps, and organizes trips. In addition to going to isolated areas that lack services and possibilities.
The library project will not be restricted only to Azaz, but will spread in other areas of the Euphrates Shield and the Olive Branch.
“The travelling library is a closed car with hundreds of books and specialized educational materials for child psychosocial support.” She added “The Network took care of a rich, integrated and selected collection of books and stories and it will enable children to communicate with their peers and develop their unlimited ideas and imagination”
“We tried to make the books simple, taking into account the size of the population, the preferences and wishes of the beneficiaries and the number of children in those areas, while the protection officer will be reading stories for young children” she expressed.
The library is accompanied with a specialized team that dedicated to provide psychosocial support to children, as well as sensitizing children and their families to basic messages of protection, as well as identifying children in need of protection and led them to specialized departments.
On the mechanism, Hassou explained that she would initially choose the library's destination based on a report from the monitoring department, which in turn determines the number of children and their needs.
The child will be given a book or a story to read, and after reading and summarizing the network give him/her a gift.
The opening ceremony of the Library witnessed various events including: sports competitions and plays for children and Quran, also a play about the importance of science and its impact on children's lives. There were other activities related to psychological support, followed by the giving a number of "flyer paper" With gifts for children attending the ceremony.
On the other hand, Tamim Al-Ghazi welcomed this initiative because it has a great impact on building children's personality by encouraging them to read and deal with the book.
"The joy of the children has been evident in the opening of the cultural events and the many competitions that contribute to cultivating a culture and love of reading and also stimulates the spirit of competition among them, Especially in the absence of a large number of them from the school, and the absence of public libraries in the region” he said.
Abdel Bari al-Khatib confirmed that the travelling library project is a free service for children and their families. “Many families want to make their children love books after they have been taken over by modern technology” he said.
He pointed out that children make friends within the library as well as reading, and that they can practice some mental games.
It is worth noting that “Child Guards” is a network to protect and care for Syria’s children, and works to raise the standards of the community including the access of children to care in the psychological, social and educational field.
Zaman Al Wasl
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