The library Aida Books&More, run by volunteers, intended the benefits to humanitarian projects and cooperation of the association AIDA, Aid, Exchange and Development
who saves the life of a book? In a figurative sense, we would know so many stories of ‘lives recovered’ as publications and readers exist in the countries of comfort on the planet. If the question is formulated in the literal sense, we can find an answer in the partnership AIDA: in 2017, the books saved the life of 42 boys and girls of Guinea-Bissau and, in the last ten years, have achieved the same with an average of 40 young per year. They are children with very serious diseases or incurable in your country, which are evacuated to hospitals in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Switzerland, for their intervention and treatment and, once recovered, they return to their homes with the same life expectancy that the children of his age.
AIDA is an NGO that “works to improve the quality of life in developing countries and making Human Rights a universal reality, cooperation projects and involving experts and professionals in the service of development”, explained from the entity. One of the ways to raise revenue sum culture and solidarity, through libraries solidarity with “books save lives”, as they like to explain.
Spain has opened a total of ten libraries solidarity Aida Books&More, one of them in Castellón, in the calle San Francisco 7, the capital of La Plana, where volunteers manage the sale of second-hand books, donated to fund these humanitarian projects and cooperation in countries such as Guinea-Bissau, Bangladesh or Senegal.
“The local, comes the magic of a space where second-hand books with all the energy that we place the volunteers, the people who come to donate and those that come to buy them, to help in the cooperation projects, putting our sand granite. It is a meeting place for lovers of books. A project in which they can collaborate in many ways,” says Paddle Alfaro, one of the volunteers of the shop in Castellón.
The establishment offers the sale of copies given away by individuals and institutions at prices between 2 and 5 euros. “The double life of these books is materialized in two ways: on the one hand, the low prices allow the access to the reading to a greater number of people and, for another, the collections that it serves, literally, to save lives,” adds Pilar Alberola, the department of communication.
The project became a reality in Castellón in may of 2016. “A few months before, met the work of Aida Books for their libraries of Valencia and we got in touch with the headquarters of Aida in Madrid, to give form to a new library in Castellón. The volunteers of Valencia lent us their help because we had to bring books there to fill our shelves and adapt the local. We started with five volunteers and today we are over 15 people participating in it and growing every day”, expressed.
Thus, it is possible to collaborate in several ways: volunteering, shopping or donating books. “We are very grateful for the generosity of the city, each day we know more people.” “Aida Books&More is also a meeting place for people who believe in and collaborate on this project, with others who come to donate or buy, all for others, who give a ‘sense’ and create an emotion that is common, both to each other”, adds Elena Aguilera, another volunteer from Castellón.
A common reason that determines them to participate as volunteers, it is the passion for books and your end goal. “One of our volunteers, Cello, has been the owner of a bookstore; Ascension has also worked in a and in the cultural sphere; Elena had worked in another library; for Julia was the dream of his life to work in a… Practically all the volunteers are attracted by the reading, and culture, and they are also giving a sense, a social purpose such as saving lives. We give a second life to books, we like to re-use, we like that it’s a sustainable project,” says Paddle Alfaro.
In the local street San Francisco, 7 in Castellón, the association has a “broad selection of literature castellana” and also “storytelling in valencian”. “The humanities are equally represented (philosophy, history, politics, etc), as well as travel, gastronomy, psychology, self-help books and others. The library receives frequent donations of children’s book and youth, for it devotes a significant section and a permanent renewal of this literature, provided by the voluntary. Accepts any style or genre, except for text books or encyclopedias A-Z.
The mission of this association passes to contribute efficiently to the fight against poverty on the basis of fundamental premises, such as social justice and Human Rights; the equality of men and women, environmental sustainability, coordination between public and private institutions; and the commitments of alignment, ownership, harmonization and transparency.
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