Human Library, Aveiro, 9th of May

What Is Human Library?

The Human Library is an event that challeng-es prejudice and discrimination through social contact. It provides safe space for people to share their life stories with others in aim to erase stereo-types and prejudices and bring positive changes in people’s attitudes towards each other.

Idea originated in Copenhagen, Denmark in year 2000 when youth organization named “Stop the Violence” organized it as an activity at Roskil-de Festival. Soon, organizations around the world recognized the idea and by now Human Library events already happened in many countries.

Human Library works as any other library – you browse book titles, choose one you want to read and then borrow it for certain amount of time. The only difference is that books are people with real stories and instead of reading the book you talk with the book!

Table of content

INTRODUCTION.. ………………. 5

MAKING OF ….………………...…6

OUR BOOKS ……...……………….9

WHO TOOK PART ........………....11

ON THE DAY OF EVENT..…....…12

OUR EXPERIENCE ………...........13

PARTICIPANTS’ FEEDBACK ......14

“Don’t Judge The Book By Its Cover”

Biblioteca Viva

In March 2015 EVS volunteers of non-profit youth association Agora Aveiro decided to make Human Library in Portugal, for the first time in Aveiro. We found it challenging to organize an event like this in a small town. In May 2015 the idea was implemented.

Making Of

We started by learning more about people and social groups around us. We wanted to have at least ten different life stories to of-fer to our readers. Finding people interested in project and convincing them to participate was not easy. After extensive search we managed to find six unique people willing to share their stories with citizens of Aveiro! We organized training for our books, where they met each other, thought of their titles and got prepared for the event.

We created a logo of Biblioteca Viva, promotional materials (posters, flyers) evaluation forms for books and for readers to give us feedback. We also created catalogues for each book, inspired by old book covers. Each catalogue had a Book’s title, a photo of our Human Book and a short introduction in their story.

We invited people to participate trough Facebook event and an-nouncement in local newspaper. City Hall of Aveiro provided space for the event in the center during the local town fair.

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story”

Terry Prachett

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Our promotional materials

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6 Different Life Stories

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Our Books

Alexandre Almeida’s story, titled “There is a lot to see, if one wants to see” is a in inspiring story about possibilities and difficulties of visually impaired young man.

Alireza Nazaritalooki is 32 year old student from northern Iran who shared his story about stereotypes he faces in Portugal, under the title “Don’t play with Middle East”.

“Hungry child doesn’t care where his bread comes from” is a story about 20 years old Mohamed Kamara who escaped Libe-ria in search for better life.

Hugo Silva’s story “Happy cow” is a story about vegan life-style, about oppression, health and sustainability.

Six people decided to share their stories with us.

Fernando Capela is a couchsurfer who decided to talk about hosting tourists in his apartment. His story was titled “You have friends all over the world, you just haven’t met them yet”.

Our only girl “Adventurous volunteer” Gracinda Fer-reira was answering readers’ questions about the Mission to Mars that she applied for few years ago.

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Aside from Books, Human Library wouldn’t be possible without…

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Non – profit youth association that promotes active citizenship, culture, healthy life-styles and positive values.

We were happy we could rely on our Portuguese speaking volunteers who were com-municating with citizens, attracting and explaining the idea to readers. They contributed a lot to the success of the event.

We are proud to say that around 30 people decided to spend some of their time to talk to our Books and to learn about different lives and lifestyles.

Agora Aveiro

Volunteers

Readers

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On the day

Our event took place on sunny Saturday, 9th of May, in front of Mercado Manuel Firmino, in the very center of our small town. There we placed reception table with Biblioteca Viva sign and all the materials, catalogues, flyers. Books were sitting around on chairs and blankets and atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed. Soon first readers started approaching and borrowing Books and for few hours all the Books were involved in vivid conversations.

Our books were “taken“ all the time during the event.

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Our Experience

In the beginning we were a bit nervous about how all of it will be. We were afraid that people will not be open to speak with people who they never met and who are somehow different from them. But still, we wanted to give it a try. Preparations took us almost two months and when the day of event came we were excited and ready to open our Li-brary. At 2 p.m. first readers started to appear. Volunteers were talking to people passing by and inviting them to participate. Soon all of the books were “borrowed”. The Library was open for four hours. During that time around 30 people took their chance to read one or more of our books. At the end of the day, we received many positive comments. Our Human Library was a success!

“A gram of experience is worth a ton of theory” Robert Gascoyne - Cecil

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“It is a great opportunity to hear someone’s different experience regarding life.”

“I would like to see this activity repeat-ed more often. My interaction with readers was wonderful, and this opportunity should be given to greater number of people.”

Reader Book

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Our Human Library was featured in newspapers.

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AGORA AVEIROWWW.AGORAAVEIRO.ORG

AVEIRO,PORTUGALMAY 2015