“Ideas box” library inside Al Azraq camp in Jordan

01 May 2015

Middle of the desert, which is not a place where you expect to sit down to read a book or watching a movie or even browsing the Internet, see the Syrians children inside Al Azraq refugee camp in Jordan which now has a library of thousands of metal houses, established at the initiative of the French non-profit organization “Libraries Without Borders” in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as the British newspaper Daily Mail reported.

Patrick Weil, the director of the organization says “There is an illness threatens the people here .. this disease called boredom”, pointing out “No person may be kept in the camp for eating only three times a day; they need to communicate with the world to see what is going on, and we need to direct their attention toward the future.”

“Fund” contain 20 computer and 20 table in addition to the Internet, cinema and electronic books, however, real books that were chosen carefully by Jordanians, Syrians and Lebanese teachers, according to Weil.

The library was named “ideas box” is designed in the form of four multi-coloured cubes, it includes two storage units, the designed idea was suggested by Organization “Libraries without borders”.

The organizers of the project indicates that “retractable contain humanitarian emergencies”, noting that is the second project after project “ideas box” in the center of the continent of Africa, Burundi, which was established last year.

Caroline Dumas, the French Ambassador in Jordan, told AFP “This project affects the future of children and allows them to communicate with the outside world, and keep them hope to continue their learning and build their future”, adding that the Fund helps children in more than half of the camp “It is useful to overcome the trauma they have suffered.”

According to the United Nations, the events in Syria have led to the displacement of nearly 7.6 million people over the past 4 years, while claimed the lives of nearly 200 thousand people. The Child Welfare Organization reported (UNICEF) nearly 2 million children live in areas without humanitarian assistance inside Syria, and about 2.6 million children are out of school.

Jordan currently hosts nearly 600 thousand Syrian refugees, It also established Al Azraq camp (located about 100 km east of Amman) a year ago, to be able to accommodate 100 thousand people, there are currently about 18 a thousand Syrian refugees. In addition to Zaatari camp, which has a nearly 80 thousand people.