Sharjah: School and university students contributed in a big way to the success of the Sharjah Used Book Fair, which managed to raise Dh250,000 for the cause of teaching and training the disabled.
About 300,000 used books were donated during the fifth cycle of Sharjah Used Book Fair 2013, a biennial event organised by the Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services (SCHS) to raise funds for developing teaching, training and rehabilitation programmes for the disabled. The event took place at the Palm garden in Sharjah next to Al Buhaira.
According to Jihad Al Taher, head of financial resources and investment at SCHS, around 50,000 people attended the event.
“SCHS was overwhelmed by the success and the appeal the programme has gained since its inception in 2006. We have had people from all walks of life and nationalities visit the fair, some people came from Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, specifically to attend the event. We also had people go up to their apartments and come back with boxes of used boxes,” he said.
Widespread interest
Al Taher said books were donated by organisations, individuals, charity associations, and, most importantly, public and private school students and university students.
“The fair is supported by the Sharjah Education District which sent out a circular to all schools asking students to donate their books,” he said.
“Students not only donated books but they also donated their time by volunteering to work at the fair. In total we had 400 volunteers. The majority of them were students, we had a total of 89 schools participate, out of which 57 were public schools.”
Al Taher attributed the massive interest in the event to the low prices of the books.
“We priced the books from Dh1 to a maximum of Dh20, and 50 per cent of the books were sold for Dh1. Some of the books were rare editions and a lot of them were initially priced Dh500 in bookstores but were sold for Dh20 and less at the fair. These low prices gave the opportunity for those with low income to purchase books, and encouraged people from all ages to read books. In total the book fair sold 100,000 books out of the 300,000 donated,” he added.
Highest demand
Sharjah Used Book Fair included books from all genres, subjects and languages. The books that were in the highest demand, according to SCHS, were Islamic books and books in English. Children’s story books also were also in big demand.
To learn more about what encourages people to donate books, Gulf News spoke to residents.
“I would have donated my books if I knew about the fair, because I would rather let someone else benefit from reading them than throwing them away. I usually recycle my books because I did not know of this event or any other event that takes donated books. I think we should have permanent bodies where people can donate their books for others to benefit from,” said Yousuf Hamad, 25, a Jordanian.
“I would donate my books because, once a book is read, it is no longer valuable. I have a whole cabinet full of books and I don’t know what to do with them. Donating books would be a nice chance to get my closet space back while benefiting others in need,” said Janeta Carino, 28, from the Philippines.
Meanwhile, SCHS expressed satisfaction with the demand that the fair witnessed and said it hoped for continued support from the public. “I think that it is a noble cause that benefits everyone — the readers benefit from purchasing books at a low cost, volunteers benefit from giving back to the community and finally the fair allows us to shed light on the services we provide and helps us to raise funds to continue on providing services to the disabled,” Al Taher said.
- Noor Nazzal is an intern with Gulf News.
