Sharjah
Education costs are probably one of the biggest challenges faced by parents around the world. Using secondhand books in good condition or giving your books for use to a junior at school could save you and them some money. And so I started doing the same.
I have been participating in a book exchange fair conducted at the Sharjah Worship Centre for the past three years and ever since, have never purchased a new school textbook. It helps my parents save about Dh500-1,000 at the start of the school term.
This would make a difference for families that have more than two children in the family attending school at the same time.
The fair is all about giving the books you have and taking the ones you want, absolutely free. Volunteers sort out the books received by schools, making it easy for people to choose what they want.
To contribute, I started collecting books from children in my building, sorting the ones in good condition by grade and donating to this fair. Additionally, my books are handed down two generations at my school, until they are totally worn out.
As for the used notebooks that I collect from the neighbourhood, I tear out the empty pages and spiral bind them together to reuse. This stops them from ending up in the landfill. Additionally, the novels can be donated to libraries and charity schools, which are always in need of educational materials.
We can experience the joy of being able to give back to the community by recycling, in addition to saving on cost. All of us have to make an individual effort to recycle, and such reuse of books is a small step towards a greener tomorrow, which can be regularly practised at home.
— The reader is a pupil based in Sharjah.
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