Disaster victims 'need books as well as food'

Supported by dozens of celebrated authors, Libraries Without Borders calls for action to supply 'nourishment for the mind'
by: Alison Flood

People reach out to catch books, donated by the Cuban government, in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. Photograph: Ramon Espinosa/AP

Books and "nourishment for the mind" should be an essential part of the emergency relief effort when disasters such as the Haitian earthquake occur, according to a call for action signed by four Nobel laureates, Libraries Without Borders and dozens of authors.


Stressing that "absolute priority" during a catastrophe should be given to the "basic needs" of food, water, shelter and health, the signatories to the appeal, led by Libraries Without Borders, believe that "more attention should be given to nourishing the mind as a second measure to help victims cope with catastrophe and move forward". The Nobel literature laureates JM Coetzee, Doris Lessing and Toni Morrison have all put their names to the call for action, alongside Nobel peace laureate FW de Klerk and authors including Jeffrey Eugenides, Junot Díaz, Michael Cunningham, Joyce Carol Oates and the Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat.

Patrick Weil, chairman of Libraries Without Borders, said that the first email the humanitarian organisation received following the Haitian earthquake in 2010 was a request for books to reopen a destroyed library. It went on to send an emergency mission to the country to help Haitian organisations distribute books and educational resources to those without homes.

"The first priority is life, but when life is secure, what can people do if they are staying in a camp? They cannot do anything, and they can become depressed," said Weil. "Once life is secured, books are essential. They're not the first priority, but the second … They are so important. They're the beginning of recovery, in terms of reconnecting with the rest of the world, and feeling like a human being again."

Despite this, UN guidelines on internal displacement do not include "nourishment of the mind" as a fundamental necessity in post-disaster zones, said Weil, and the call to action Libraries Without Borders has put together challenges the UN and other international organisations to change this.

"While numerous international guidelines for humanitarian assistance do affirm the importance of basic education within humanitarian settings, these guidelines should also include access to books and information as a priority for disaster victims," says the appeal, which calls on international organisations to "expand reading, cultural and educational programmes, which activate the human spirit and help individuals cope with trauma", and to "make the provision of access to information and books a priority for international humanitarian relief".

Other signatories include the authors Dave Eggers, Marie Darrieussecq, Amin Maalouf, Alain Mabanckou and Amélie Nothomb, and academics including Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, and Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy at Princeton University.

"I saw personally how much comfort books can bring to young people living in internally displaced camps and tent cities through my involvement with an organisation called Li, Li, Li! where Haitian teachers and artists, who were sometimes displaced themselves, read books to children in the camps. Though people were in a lot of pain and were suffering a great deal, they were able, for an hour or so, to find some comfort in the pages of a book," said Danticat. "I have great belief in the power of words, written or read, to help us begin healing. I have experienced it in my own life and I have also seen it in action."

Zachary Kaufman, chairman of the board of directors of the American Friends of the Public Library of Kigali, was "deeply involved" in building Rwanda's first-ever public library, and said that literacy and access to information were "critical … to countries recovering from conflict and other humanitarian crises".

"Unbiased resources help communities prevent or at least mitigate and recover from tragic events," said Kaufman. "Nourishing the mind is as important as nourishing the body in pursuing a path to progress and peace."

Todd Landman, professor of government and director of the institute for democracy and conflict resolution at the University of Essex, agreed. "People living under conditions of duress during times of humanitarian crises need as much access to books, knowledge and information as is humanly possible in order to provide hope, inspiration and the ability to thrive and survive," he said.

Oates called the issue "urgent", because "there can be no democracy without access to books and education – no culture without literature. Books are a crucial part of what makes us human, the most precious of our resources."

Anyone who wishes to add their voice to the campaign can sign up to it at www.urgencyofreading.org

from: Guardian