If books can’t save a life, they can certainly make it better. No one knows this better than Wouter Van Gijzen who has been volunteering for Borderline Books since 2002. Through Borderline Books, Van Gijzen has provided free books for hundreds of people who couldn’t afford to buy them. He is only 34 but has some good stories to tell starting from the way he joined the organization nine years ago. We meet him to talk about books, volunteering and the pleasure of making people happy.
How does Borderline Books work?
We ask publishers, booksellers and libraries to donate their surplus books in order to provide books for people who cannot afford to buy them: refugees who’ve just arrived in Europe or who live in detention centers, homeless people, women and children who are domestic violence survivors and live in shelters or people who have just got out of jail and don’t have anything anymore. We put our logo on the books, which says that the books cannot be sold and we give them away for free to whoever wants to read them. We have more than ten thousands books available.
Why did you choose to volunteer for this particular organization?
I joined Borderline Books in 2002 when I was living in an old squatted building. At the time the organization had the headquarter there and since I found the service they offered extremely precious, I decided to help them. In some parts of Europe and in the United States hundreds of thousands of books get pulped every year, because they are overstocked or because some copies are slightly damaged, while there are many people who are unable to buy books but would like to read them. We have all kinds of books, children stories, novels and books for study.
What do you value the most about this experience?
I do not expect anything out of my volunteering activities. I do it because making people happy makes me happy. Once I met a refugee from Africa who told me he had read one of our books. He had just arrived in the Netherlands and that book was the only thing he had at the time. That really touched my heart. A book can be a very good friend when you do not have anything.
What do you expect from the European Year of Volunteering?
Besides being a volunteer, I also work as a consultant for two volunteering agencies, so I know very well how precious voluntary work is. Here in the Netherlands the government is cutting down funds for volunteering activities and I am worried about it. It would be a shame if voluntary organizations disappeared because of the cuts. I hope that the European Year of Volunteering will enhance voluntary work and make it more respected.
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