Where do you see yourself in the 70s? Maybe in the Greek island, a long way from home with a good book or two.
There is now Ruth Miller now, although there is a lag behind the usual story.
Nine nine years ago, Londoner decided to volunteer a month on a refugee camp on the Greek Island of Lesbos. Today, she mostly spends her time as a librarian in Camp Mavrovouni.
Miller, 71, a former civil servant who worked on simplifying communication in government written materials, transferred his literacy skills.
“Not exactly what I had in mind I enter my eighth decade, but it’s a new challenge and love it – most of the time, though it’s exhausting,” she says.
She works for NGO Eurorelief and was a driver behind turning shedly covered with metal linings, a former bicycle repair workshop, in an oasis of books in 15 different languages.
It contains 2,500 books, many in English, although Miller always tries to sources more books in Farsi, Arabic, Turkey for adults. Many refugees speak Arabic and Farsi, but also know Turkish because they spend longer periods living in Turkey before crossing the Aegean Sea Greece.
Popular loans include Freud and Dostoevsky on Turkey and George Orwell’s fauna in Farsi. Khaled Hosseini is also borrowed a whale runner and a thousand great sunshine. Young refugees have books about famous football.
“One little boy comes every other day looking for a book [Virgil] Van Dijk – He went out on a loan and didn’t come back yet. He finished [Harry] Kane and [Luis] Suarez, “Miller says.
She is a fan of life spacing and managed to provide a team kit for some of the children from her beloved club. Some of the children proudly pass around the camp in their shirts, while others wear rival red shirts arsenal.
It teaches children in the London Geography camp using the locations of various football teams around the capital.
A small shed, tweaking hot during the flight is decorated with artistic works that are created by refugees that pass, including a young refugee artist of the immurge bird – known as the king of birds in Persian mythology. For the youngest non-readers, there are enough piles of LEGO.
The library was opened in March 2024. years and proved popular with a traumatized group of people, many of whom ran a conflict zone in countries such as Syria and Afghanistan and made dangerous mares from Turkey to Greece.
As one refugee library described: “The reading gives us somewhere to go when we have to stay where we are.”
The library is centrally located in the camp, sandwiches between the Greek Cleaning and Falling Team units in the ocean, a non-governmental organization providing laundry service. It has the support of Dimitrios Kanment, Camp General in Lesbos.
“In the heart of the refugee camp, the library is not just a book with books, it is a shrine of hope and healing,” he says. “It stands as a powerful symbol of what connects us via cultures: transformative powers story.”
Sham, 17, Syrian refugees is in the camp with his family. Good English speaks and says that her favorite books of the chronicle of ancient darkness in Michelle.
“The refugee is a terrible thing to be, but this library makes it easy when I feel down. I’ll never stop reading,” she says.
Her dream is to continue his education and becomes a children’s social worker. The sign inside the library says, “Today the reader tomorrow, tomorrow leader.”
Miller grew up on Hackney Council real estate and walked into a local library with her father every Saturday morning. Every week everyone chose four books to drive home.
“For me, growing up libraries was a special place,” she says, “and I wanted to create a similar place for children in the camp.”
