Montreal, Canada - July 27, 2016 - (Newswire.com)
In proportion to the size of its population, Lebanon hosts the highest number of Syrian refugees in the world. Bookwitty, a new digital content and book discovery platform, in collaboration with the UNHCR’s Save the Children, has donated books to supply a full mobile library in a refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley (https://youtu.be/gs2SUk5V5V0).
“Books are very important for children: they expose them to a variety of topics and enhance their knowledge, and help stimulate their imagination. Reading books is also fundamental to motivate children to go to school and learn,” says Save the Children Lebanon’s Award Manager Ahmad Halablab, who is working with his organization to ensure that refugee children are not out of school for more than a month.
Over 800 books for children ages 6 to 14 were chosen by the UNHCR’s Save the Children educational advisors from Bookwitty’s extensive multi-lingual book catalogue to answer the pressing needs of a new mobile library. The mobile library concept is already present in other refugee camps in northern Lebanon, but there are none yet in the Bekaa Valley refugee camp.
The objective is to promote education and literacy by providing children, especially those who have not yet attended school, with a wide range of books. “We didn’t have to think twice about helping the UNHCR launch a new mobile library considering that universal access to books is at the core of what we are about,” says Cindy Carvalho, Marketing Director at Bookwitty.
Bookwitty has also used its digital content platform to bring awareness about the refugee crisis by posting personal stories, interviews and articles written by journalists, authors and refugees themselves. The posts showcase a more personal side to the situation that goes beyond just facts and figures.
"As avid readers, the entire team at Bookwitty recognizes the importance of reading, not just from an educational standpoint, but also to allow children to be momentarily transported somewhere else; giving them respite from their current situation,”
Launched in 2015, Bookwitty.com is a unique knowledge-sharing platform that is centered around book discovery. It allows users to find, share and write content on books and a variety of topics, both specific and general. Through user generated-content, people can discover and purchase books, even the most inaccessible. It was named Official Content Platform in 2015 for both the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in London, as well as for Book Riot Live, an event for book lovers in NYC.
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Original Source: Helping Refugee Children Travel to Other Worlds: Bookwitty Donates Books for Children in Lebanese Refugee Camp
