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Send books to Balochistan, they’re building reading rooms
Muzhira Amin
Aug 17, 2020
The first batch of 500 books has reached Wadh.
Elif Shafak and Paulo Coelho are pretty popular writers in Wadh, Balochistan—which is rather odd since none of their books had ever really been sold there.
As you may have guessed, this story is about how that is going to change.
The agents of change are Siraj Sheikh, an engineering graduate from the University of Khuzdar, and five of his friends who are opening tiny libraries in small towns across the district. Their latest one is Wadh Students Library which took advantage of an abandoned building where people did drugs.
“We had been looking for a place to build a library but couldn’t find one after which we wrote to the district government asking for help,” Sheikh told SAMAA Digital. After days of waiting, they received a call, granting them permission to convert an old abandoned building of the Revenue Department.
The dilapidated three-room house had a shaky roof and paint was peeling off the walls. The boys went to work from seven in the morning till dark for 50 days to fix it up. They used pocket money and donations from residents. “Some donated Rs1,000, some Rs500 and some just helped us with the labour,” Sheikh said. They put in shelves, painted the walls and put down a carpet.
They still need to get new tables and chairs as the old ones are broken. “Most of the students who come here don’t find this a hindrance and just sit on the floor,” Sheikh said.
Balochistan Youth against Coronavirus, that mostly works on rations for families, donated 500 books. BYAC founder Sikander Bizenjo put out an open call on Twitter, which helped the cause.
Bizenjo is also from Balochistan but settled in Karachi after his Bachelor’s degree in the UK. “This may come as a surprise to many people, but the people of Balochistan are very well-read,” he said. “When we spoke to the youth there about the books they needed, we received the names of authors such as Elif Shafak and Paulo Coelho.”
They are trying to get books on regional and international politics, literature, psychology and philosophy.
BYAC is working on sending books for 13 community-built libraries across Balochistan. One of them is in Awaran that was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2013. The youngsters there have built a library for schoolchildren and are planning to scale it up to cater to Intermediate and graduate students.
Another library is underway in Nal district.
The revival of these libraries started during the COVID-19 lockdown when students from the province who had travelled to other parts of the country for higher education came back to their villages.
“When I was studying at my university in Quetta, I used to wake up at 5am and walk to the library in the city just so that I could get a seat there,” said Siraj Sheikh.
When he returned home to Wadh, he realized that there wasn’t a single library in his district. Sheikh is from the small village of Tuk, 25 kilometers from Wadh.
The son of a farmer, he is the only person from his village to have gone to university. Most of the students in his village drop out after primary school and the farthest they go is to Wadh.
How to donate books for these Balochistan libraries?
If you want to send books for these libraries, you can reach out to Bizenjo via email or through social media. “We have Twitter accounts that are active and people are reaching out to us every day,” he said.
BYAC has volunteers who frequently travel to and from Balochistan and deliver books. Sheikh is sitting on 500 that are waiting for the next trip.
Unlike big-budget government-run libraries, these community libraries don’t have huge rooms and high ceilings. They aim to at least provide young people a place where they can peacefully read and study, Bizenjo explained.
https://www.samaa.tv/news/pakistan/2020/08/send-books-to-balochistan-theyre-building-reading-rooms/
Muzhira Amin
Aug 17, 2020
The first batch of 500 books has reached Wadh.
Elif Shafak and Paulo Coelho are pretty popular writers in Wadh, Balochistan—which is rather odd since none of their books had ever really been sold there.
As you may have guessed, this story is about how that is going to change.
The agents of change are Siraj Sheikh, an engineering graduate from the University of Khuzdar, and five of his friends who are opening tiny libraries in small towns across the district. Their latest one is Wadh Students Library which took advantage of an abandoned building where people did drugs.
“We had been looking for a place to build a library but couldn’t find one after which we wrote to the district government asking for help,” Sheikh told SAMAA Digital. After days of waiting, they received a call, granting them permission to convert an old abandoned building of the Revenue Department.
The dilapidated three-room house had a shaky roof and paint was peeling off the walls. The boys went to work from seven in the morning till dark for 50 days to fix it up. They used pocket money and donations from residents. “Some donated Rs1,000, some Rs500 and some just helped us with the labour,” Sheikh said. They put in shelves, painted the walls and put down a carpet.
They still need to get new tables and chairs as the old ones are broken. “Most of the students who come here don’t find this a hindrance and just sit on the floor,” Sheikh said.
Balochistan Youth against Coronavirus, that mostly works on rations for families, donated 500 books. BYAC founder Sikander Bizenjo put out an open call on Twitter, which helped the cause.
Bizenjo is also from Balochistan but settled in Karachi after his Bachelor’s degree in the UK. “This may come as a surprise to many people, but the people of Balochistan are very well-read,” he said. “When we spoke to the youth there about the books they needed, we received the names of authors such as Elif Shafak and Paulo Coelho.”
They are trying to get books on regional and international politics, literature, psychology and philosophy.
BYAC is working on sending books for 13 community-built libraries across Balochistan. One of them is in Awaran that was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2013. The youngsters there have built a library for schoolchildren and are planning to scale it up to cater to Intermediate and graduate students.
Another library is underway in Nal district.
The revival of these libraries started during the COVID-19 lockdown when students from the province who had travelled to other parts of the country for higher education came back to their villages.
“When I was studying at my university in Quetta, I used to wake up at 5am and walk to the library in the city just so that I could get a seat there,” said Siraj Sheikh.
When he returned home to Wadh, he realized that there wasn’t a single library in his district. Sheikh is from the small village of Tuk, 25 kilometers from Wadh.
The son of a farmer, he is the only person from his village to have gone to university. Most of the students in his village drop out after primary school and the farthest they go is to Wadh.
How to donate books for these Balochistan libraries?
If you want to send books for these libraries, you can reach out to Bizenjo via email or through social media. “We have Twitter accounts that are active and people are reaching out to us every day,” he said.
BYAC has volunteers who frequently travel to and from Balochistan and deliver books. Sheikh is sitting on 500 that are waiting for the next trip.
Unlike big-budget government-run libraries, these community libraries don’t have huge rooms and high ceilings. They aim to at least provide young people a place where they can peacefully read and study, Bizenjo explained.
https://www.samaa.tv/news/pakistan/2020/08/send-books-to-balochistan-theyre-building-reading-rooms/
