As conflict persists in Syria and Afghanistan, refugees continue to flee. Many are housed in isolated camps whilst they undertake the arduous process of applying for legal asylum. The camps consist of rows of tents and container boxes: most have minimal access services and transport. ECHO is a multilingual library on wheels that gets books, learning resources, internet and a community space to these places. As the border crisis continues, we need your help to run this service:
After conflict violence drove people from their homes in nearby countries, over 50,000 people find themselves stuck in refugee camps in Greece. Most must live for two years or longer in camps that were supposed to be temporary. These places are isolated without basic services or transportation to local cities. Refugees find themselves isolated here, struggling to learn the local language or continue their studies: with so much time and so little to do, dreams can die.
ECHO mobile library provides the tools needed to keep dreams alive: WiFi, books in nine languages, resources to aid self-study and emergency translation documents from mother-tongue into Greek and English. Our library van creates a community space where families can read together, conversation can be had, and imaginations can be fed by literature.
These funds ensure the library's future into 2021-2. An investment in our core infrastructure - our beloved van - will provide the stability we need to give 4000 refugees access to the library. This will support about 1850 book loans, 150 lessons, and the distribution of 6000 language learning resources over the next 12 months. The personal long term impacts for each and every book borrower are harder to quantify: friends made, inspiration regained, old skills bolstered and new ones acquired.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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