349 boxes, containing 20 thousand books, will follow this Friday, March 26, destined for São Tomé and Príncipe. The solidarity initiative janointed the Library Network of the municipality of Loulé and the Liga dos Combatentes, with the aim of helping those in need.
The collection began in 2020, took two academic years (2019/2020 and 2020/2021), but only now are the books going to continue their journey towards Africa.
Last Sunday, the 21st of March, three vans, provided by the City Council of Loulé, were loaded with all the books that were taken to the Military Airport of Figo Maduro, in Lisbon.
From there, an Air Force flight will depart next Friday, heading for São Tomé and Príncipe.
Ao Sul Informação, Dina Adão, coordinator of the Library Network of the municipality of Loulé, explained how this solidarity initiative came about,
«The idea was born in the context of the Week of Reading. We were in the 2020 school year and we decided to honor the books, carrying out a solidarity collection campaign with the objective that they go to Africa», he said.
The Library Network ended up joining forces with the Loulé Nucleus of the Liga dos Combatentes, which also had a parallel campaign, and from there «a good marriage emerged».
Among the 20 thousand copies, there are children's books, other more technical ones and also school manuals. And why choose São Tomé and Príncipe?
Dina Adão explained that "there is a family bridge between the president of the League of Combatants of Loulé and the Portuguese School in São Tomé, which will receive the books, ending up being a guarantee that everything will come to a good end."
Manuel Costeira, president of the Loulé nucleus of the Liga dos Combatentes, explained to our newspaper that the Portuguese School will be “the fair and equitable distribution of books to all schools”.
“São Tomé is a small country, it has some libraries, but unfortunately, only in name”, he lamented.
So that everything goes well in receiving the books, «the Military Defense Attaché and the ambassador of Portugal in São Tomé are already involved, so that we can guarantee that the books reach a good port and their destination», he concluded.
The “Solidarity Books for São Tomé” campaign, promoted by the Library Network, had the support of the community of public and private schools in the municipality of Loulé (Professional School of Alte and International College of Vilamoura), the Municipal Library of Loulé and the Manuel Viegas Guerreiro Foundation.
It also had the logistical support of the Municipality of Loulé, the Parish Council of Quarteira and the Liga dos Combatentes – Nucleus of Loulé.
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