Books for Aceh campaign began in Canberra
Dewi Anggraeni, Contributor, Melbourne
When a disaster strikes, especially one as devastating as the Dec. 26 tsunami in Aceh, people's lives are destroyed. Many people literally disappear, and those who survive have to pick up their lives from the pieces.
That is indeed what the survivors of the tsunami in Aceh are doing. Assistance for redevelopment has been and still is coming in from around the world. Apart from basic necessities, donations also include funding for rebuilding schools, because the young are very high on everyone's agenda.
A group in Australia is showing its concern for the young in its own way. A coterie of six booksellers in Canberra have joined forces with the National Library of Australia to raise funds to buy books for libraries in Aceh.
What drove Asia Bookroom, Alexander Fax Booksellers, Book Lore, Dalton Books, Gaslight Books and Paperchain Bookstore to join forces was seeing the efforts of the National Library of Australia, which was working to donate A$13,000 worth of Indonesian-language books to Aceh.
The Australian National Library's regional office in Jakarta has indeed begun to purchase the books, donating them directly to camps for displaced persons in Aceh, where over 250 000 people are now living temporarily, without knowing when they can leave for more permanent homes. Since the books are purchased in Indonesia, the library does not have to pay a lot for transportation, so it can maximize spending on the books themselves.
"I realize that getting books into a disaster region isn't the first thing that is thought of or needed, when people are in these situations," said Sally Burdon, the manager of Asia Bookroom, "However, on top of all the terrible things that have happened, they have nothing to do. What must that feel like? Books are at least a way of learning new skills and having time- out, getting one's mind off the current situation."
Spoken like a real book lover, and how true!
The booksellers in Canberra describe themselves as "just ordinary small businesspeople who really want to help". It started off with a dinner chat between Sally Burdon and Meredith Wright of Dalton Bookshop after the tsunami. The chat turned increasingly serious and ended with a determination to extend help in their own way.
Burdon then contacted Amelia McKenzie, director of Asian Collections at the National Library Australia, and learned that the library was already organizing a book-buying program. Burdon discovered then that the State Library in Aceh had lost over 200,000 books from their devastated library, and had also lost several mobile library units.
McKenzie told The Jakarta Post that the manager of the National Library of Australia's Jakarta office, Ralph Sanderson, got in touch with Dadi Rahmananta of the National Library of Indonesia. Dadi had visited Aceh in February on a fact-finding mission and produced a sobering report of the situation of the state library there.
The ensuing project is being supervised by Sanderson. The first delivery of books was a huge success, with the arrival of the mobile library unit greeted by a crowd of eager and welcoming people who were thirsting for reading materials.
The Canberra bookshops have devised different ways of raising funds, depending on the focus of their shops and their way of doing business. Some will be donating a percentage of their profits for a month. Most will have a "sale" table for people who come to visit their shops. Asia Bookroom, for instance, which also sells by mail order, has also appealed to its mail order customers. It is donating 20 percent of its monthly takings from its monthly bargain lists, and is also accepting donations. In fact, within several minutes of sending the lists out, one of its customers called to donate A$100.
People are particularly encouraged to hear that their money goes a long way in buying books in Indonesia. For instance, the National Library of Australia recently bought 15 children's books for A$20, which in Australia would only buy one or two books.
Amelia McKenzie said there were plans afoot to help with the library furniture such as shelves, but at the moment the focus was on reading materials.
The endeavor will superbly complement the current project of rebuilding and refurnishing schools in the devastated areas, and will strengthen the existing ties between the community of libraries in Australia and Indonesia.