Welcoming Afghan Refugees
After the Afghan government collapsed, eight-year-old Yamna and her parents fled to Canada as refugees. They had one small suitcase and Yamna couldn’t bring a single book. Only Yamna’s father speaks a bit of English and none of them can read other than in their own language, Dari.
Yamna and her father are just three of the 40,000 Afghan refugees Canada will be resettling in the coming months. Like Yamna’s family, many of these vulnerable Afghans lack the essentials to thrive and adapt to their new country.
Help us welcome these refugees with beautifully illustrated, bilingual books of traditional Afghan tales. Each book in Dari or Pashto will be paired with English. Not only will kids like Yamna receive their first book, but she can also read a traditional Afghan story and begin to learn English at the same time. She can begin again.
Our project for Afghan refugees in Canada
We are providing 2000 books in English-Dari and English-Pashto translations to refugee communities across Canada.
“Yamna and her family are just three of the nearly 6 million Afghans who have been driven out of their homes and their country by conflict, violence and poverty. Since January 2021, more than 667,900 of people in Yamna’s country have been forcibly displaced. Like Yamna and her mother, the impact on Afghan women and girls has been particularly devastating – 80 percent of people forcibly displaced within Afghanistan are women and children.”
Building bridges with books
The stories that we donate build multiple bridges with refugee communities,
connecting them with their heritage and helping children with their language development.
According to research by SIL International, primary education programs that begin in
the mother tongue help students gain literacy and numeracy skills more quickly.
With our partners Hoopoe Books for Refugees and Kashfi’s Children,
we can donate translation of beautiful multicultural books in many languages.
But we cannot do this without your help as well!
6 – 1134 11th Ave. West VancouverBC V6H 1K3 Canada 888.422.0280 | info at booksoverborders dot org
Charitable Registration Number 86260 1077 RR000