São Paulo – “Imagine that you are forced to flee your country, leaving everything behind, arriving at a totally different place, with another culture, another language and another alphabet and, suddenly, you go to a library and find a book written in your language. It feels like a hug, doesn’t it? It’s like an enormous hug, as if the country was welcoming you, accepting you, and you feel welcome, at home.”
That’s how director Amna Al Mazmi described the foundation of the Kalimat Foundation in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), which, this Saturday (4), donated an Arab Library with 100 children’s and young adult books in Arabic to the São Paulo Library, located at Youth Park, north part of the city.
In addition to the director of the Kalimat Foundation for Children’s Empowerment and a small delegation from the emirate, also attending the event were the general consul of the UAE in São Paulo, Ibrahim Salem Alalawi, the Secretary of Culture of the state of São Paulo, Romildo Campello, the coordinator of the Cultural Dissemination, Libraries and Reading Department of the state of São Paulo, Silvia Antibas, who’s also the Cultural Director of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, and children from the Lar Sírio (picture above).
According to Al Mazmi, the president of Kalimat, Bodour Bint Sultan Al Qasimi, created the project in 2016 dreaming of a foundation that would aid Arab children in less developed regions and conflict zones, so literature could reach them everywhere. In two years, Kalimat has garnered private sponsorships and, as of today, has donated over 100 Arab libraries (with 100 books each), spread over many countries, among them Sweden, France, Hong Kong and Tunisia.
This is the first donation to Brazil and Al Mazmi says that she expects it to be the beginning of a long-standing partnership. “We do an extensive research and are very careful in the choice of the places that will receive the books, staying in touch with the libraries even after the donations. Here, we were welcomed with great enthusiasm, we really liked the work done by the São Paulo Library and we are certain that we have chosen the right place.”
(Continues after the photo gallery)
Kalimat has brought six Arab libraries to Brazil, with 100 books each. One was a donation to the São Paulo Library, and another will go to the children at the Lar Sírio. The other four will probably be donated to other state libraries, yet to be named. The donations are part of a partnership with the Secretariat of Culture of the state of São Paulo.
During the visit, the executive director of SP Leituras (the organization that manages the São Paulo Library), Pierre Ruprecht, led a tour through the library, which has children’s, young adult and adult books, internet access, movies and games and an area to people with disabilities, including books in Braille, audiobooks and even an equipment that holds the book and automatically flips the pages. “We were very surprised and delighted when we received this donation because this is a library of inclusion, of accessibility, and we care very much for the people in the community that in some way are isolated,” said Ruprecht.
According to the director, to receive a donation of books is not very usual, even more in another language, and this is a very important opportunity for the library, which has as its main mission the inclusion, social, physical, of all types, and bringing the community closer via knowledge and reading. “This donation brings an opportunity for sharing with the Arabic-speaking communities and the other communities that attend the library, providing access to a different culture,” he concluded.
To Silvia Antibas, “it’s very important to receive this donation here at the São Paulo Library. To bring cultures closer is one of our missions and this will provide us the opportunity to bring in new visitors and to promote a greater cultural exchange, organizing a project with refugee Arab children along Brazilian children.”
“We are honored in receiving the donation of the Arab Library and believe that cultural exchange and reading are the secret to the union of peoples and the success of two nations [Brazil and the UAE],” said the consul Alalawi.
History
The São Paulo Library opened in 2010 at Youth Park, in the area that used to be the penitentiary Casa de Detenção de São Paulo, best known as Carandiru, where, in a riot in 1992, known as the “Carandiru Massacre”, 111 inmates were killed. The prison was demolished in 2002 and the park built in its place was opened in 2003.
To Ruprecht, the fact that the library is in this specific area has an incredible symbolic dimension. “It’s very important that a prison, that prison, renowned by the massacre, has become a park and now is the place of our library; and from an urban viewpoint, you don’t shut down a prison with nine thousand inmates and that simply disappears, because a community arose around it, and the library plays the role of peacemaker and of bringing the community together,” he concluded.
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
