In the project titled "Education, Community, Hope and Opportunity" (ECHO), a small van is transformed into a mobile library where refugees and asylum seekers in Greece have access to books, tablets, and wifi connections for a moment of peace in which to read and study.
Following the closure of the border between Greece and Macedonia in March 2016, "over 50000 asylum seekers remain in Greece, waiting to have their asylum claims heard and processed", according to the ECHO project's website. "Not all will have the chance to leave Greece and be relocated to Europe. In the midst of uncertainty and waiting, the task of 'filling time' must become that of 'using time'.
Our Refugee Library project exists to provide them with opportunities to equip themselves with skills and knowledge for the future that lies beyond this long wait," it said. The project provides a reading space, internet access, and tutors to help with using a computer, learning a language, enrolling in university or applying for jobs. The library hails itself as "a space of learning and creativity, a place to cultivate the mind" as well as a place "where goals and ambition can be worked towards, regardless of the grim reality of the present". Over 1,300 books in six languages ECHO began in August 2016 with a flagship project, in which a library was set up in the Vasilika camp in northern Greece.
In November of that year the mobile library project began, travelling to camps in Thessaloniki before moving to the Athens area in May 2017. The idea for the project came from the work of two volunteers, Laura Samira Naude and Esther ten Zijthoff. ECHO now has more than 1,300 books in six languages - Arabic, Kurdish, Farsi, French, Greek, and English - with an average of 115 readers a week.
"When we started the project, we had a vision of duplicating the library setup in multiple regions in Greece," Zijthoff told The Guardian. "We are looking for people to hand over the project to, but many volunteers and organisations, not only in Greece but Serbia, Italy, Palestine and Lebanon, say the set-up could work very well. So, even if we are not the ones starting, we hope that the concept will spread," Zijthoff said. (An image from the ECHO project's van. Credit: ECHO Refugee Library)