By Julie Schweickert | Programmes Officer
Hello again! We just wanted to provide you all with a bit of an update on our part.
It seems that our lending library is now used more than ever before! Since our last report on July 4th, we have had 101 people registering as a member of our library, while 134 books have been lent out during that time. Our pop-up library in the centre of Mavrovouni camp is always busy in the morning with people wanting to get a book or play a game at our games station. Mainly we have a lot of children who collect in our area before going to their classes in schools in Mytilene. Their favourite game is Carrom, a typical Afghan game that involves pushing the coin with your fingers into the other team’s goal.
Our library container inside the Education Hub in camp continues to serve as an activities area for children when they come out for a break between their classes. We have had 439 visits of children between the ages of 4 - 14 years old in the library container since we have opened it.
The container has also become a place for people to come hang out, look for books, read books, and get more information about language classes. Just today, we met a woman from Afghanistan, who has been borrowing books from our library ever since she arrived on the island. She reads books in both English and Persian, so that she can have an excellent level when she goes on to study. It turns out that she also loves painting and would like to find a space to do that. These are the moments when we reflect on the services we provide and adapt them to our beneficiaries needs and desires, because in the end, we do it all for them.
Another fun development is the Games Night at Openspace! Besides still welcoming everyone to play the games we have available, we are now hosting a special event every thursday. Our first event, Karaoke, was an incredible success. We all sang along to music in English, French, Persian, Linguala, Italian, Greek and many more. We also hosted a bingo night and are planning to do charades next week! Everyone is welcome to join, miming speaks all languages.
Lastly, we are always looking towards the future. We have noticed that people in quarantine are extra isolated from the rest of the population and don’t have access to our services. So what do we do? We will bring our services to them. We are currently planning how to give them access to books and games from inside the quarantine area all the while keeping our staff safe.
We are also expecting many changes here on the island with a new camp on the horizon which will inevitably drastically impact the lives of our beneficiaries and the way that we work. We are currently deliberating and planning upcoming scenarios. We will keep you updated on how this will affect the project.
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