Sharjah delegation to open children’s library in refugee camp

The trip is organised by the UAE Board on Books for Young People, and Knowledge Without Borders.

SHARJAH // Humanitarian aid from the UAE for Syria’s refugee children is taking a new form – a library with 3,000 books.

The children’s library at Marjeeb Al Fahood refugee camp in Jordan is being set up by the UAE Board on Books for Young People and Knowledge Without Borders, the global education initiative.

“Our aim is to extend cultural, psychological and emotional support to Syrian refugee children and their parents, and to alleviate the suffering of Syrian refugees who fled their war-torn country,” said Marwa Obaid Al Aqroubi, the board’s president.

A delegation from Sharjah will organise activities at the camp including workshops for teachers and parents, reading sessions, handcraft workshops at the camp’s classrooms, and mural paintings by refugee children with the help of children’s book illustrators from the emirate.

Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, daughter of the Ruler of Sharjah and the board’s patron, “believes that books and reading are as important as food and medicine, particularly in crisis and post-crisis periods,” Mrs Al Aqroubi said. The initiative will use books and reading to help to restore mental and psychological balance and create a positive stimulus for refugee children.

The Marjeeb Al Fahood camp near Zarqa in Jordan is funded by the UAE and opened in April last year. It is home to nearly 4,000 refugees from the Syrian civil war.