Street Libraries in Poland
"Books are magic"
It was in autumn 2007 that the project to launch street libraries in Poland was born. Time and energy were set aside at the beginning of 2008 to locate those areas where the street libraries would take place, find the teams willing to animate the sessions and organise training for those wishing to get involved. The street libraries themselves began in earnest in April 2008 in two small villages, one large town in the centre of the country and in the capital city. In October 2008, the animators of the street libraries came together at the Lycée Français in Warsaw to evaluate the first few months of the project.
“We’d start the week with a street library in a centre for Chechen refugees on the northwestern outskirts of town,” explains Albane, who spent time working with the ATD Fourth World team in Warsaw in April and May 2008. “Some 350 families are crammed together in a block of flats, waiting to see if they will be given the papers they need to be able to stay in the country or be sent home. Some of the children go to school, some don’t. That’s why the street library takes place between 12:30 and 2:00; it means we can target those who don’t go to school and then absorb those who come back from school at 1:15.”
Although the majority do not speak Polish, the street library offers books in Polish so that the children can get to know the language of the country. Following the input of the parents, other book are also available in English and French. According to Albane, the reality is less difficult than it appears. “It just means finding new ways to communicate. All of the children, no matter how old they are, are curious about the world around them and not as bothered by the language barriers as you’d think… Whenever we arrived on a Monday afternoon, you could hear the children shouting ’Kziaski’ or ’the books’…”
Two other street libraries take place in the neighbourhood of Praga: in an isolated and remote housing estate every Thursday and in the courtyard of old buildings every Saturday. Situated in eastern Warsaw, Praga stands on the banks of the Vistula, the river which runs through the centre of the capital. Hard-hit by poverty, the neighbourhood is next door to Europe’s largest outdoor market which is now, little by little, closing down to make way for a new stadium as Poland prepares to co-host the 2012 European Championships.
Markus, from Switzerland, is part of the team animating the Thursday street library. “There are usually between five and eight of us in the animation team. We meet up in the ATD Fourth World office to choose the books we’ll use and then we make our way to Dudziarska Street together. We have to walk across railway tracks to get there, which brings home to you how isolated the families must feel living in this sort of no man’s land. A small group of children will be waiting for us to arrive and open up the suitcase full of books. It’s mostly girls who take part; boys are a lot less interested in books but we seem to have gained their trust by playing football with them on their improvised pitch. The parents used to keep their distance too, but now they come up and offer their support and their ideas.”
With the launch of the street library project, other individuals, communities and organisations have contacted the ATD Fourth World team with their own stories. One mother from the western Poland wrote, “I live in a village of approximately 100 inhabitants. A number of families were rehoused in the building I live in, an old school from the Prussian era, because they hadn’t paid their rent. Many of the children don’t read books at home and the parents simply don’t have the means to take them to the library… My daughter and I – mostly her – have a lot of books. We are mad about them. So last year, during the holidays, I got all the children together in the garden or in the courtyard and read to them. They liked it so much that I hope to do the same again this year. Books are magic. All children should be able to enjoy some of that magic.”
