Syed Hassan has always enjoyed spending as much time as possible reading.
“I’m a book lover.”
An immigrant who came to Canada from Pakistan in 2009, Hassan has now found a new way to share his love of reading with other newcomers.
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With the help of middle school students in his northeast Calgary neighbourhood, he’s created a multicultural version of the little free library on the lawn outside his house.
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Hassan has stocked it with donated books in several languages, including Punjabi, Urdu, Russian and Korean.
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He got the idea after noticing the challenges facing new immigrants.
“Seniors and newcomers, they have no ride to go to the library,” Hassan said.
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“People are going to electronic media and just away from the books. My mission is: people want to come back to books.”
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Grade 9 student Alizeh Fatima was part of the school team that built the little library for Hassan.
“I have a lot of family members who are not so good with English,” Fatima said. “So I think this is important to have.”
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