TEXT: SCHEHREZADE PARRO
Solidarity Books
You choose how much to pay. That is how TuuuLibreria works. In this chain of solidarity bookstores, the customers decide what the price of the books should be and can take away as many as fit in one hand. This initiative not only offers the chance of coming across literary gems for a modest sum, but also promotes reading in national and international schools by sending them material every year.
This solidarity project started up in 2012 and, from its four centers (three in Madrid and one in Barcelona), fosters greater accessibility to culture for all population groups. Its operation is based on a feedback loop between customers, who donate books and have the chance to acquire new ones. Thanks to them, books have been sent to libraries and schools both in Spain and overseas – in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Nepal or Nicaragua, among others. You can donate books and learn where the physical stores are at their website https://www.tuuulibreria.org/
Forging adult, independent women in Cambodia
The journalist Tina Kieffer created Toutes à l’ école (Everyone to School) in 2005. This association offers girls and young women in Cambodia the chance to access quality education and job opportunities, promoting the role of women in the country’s economy and in positions of responsibility. The aim is to mitigate the effects of a culture which prefers sending boys, rather than girls, to school.
This was how the Happy Chandara school came about. This initiative gives Cambodian girls a future far removed from the poverty and illegal trafficking networks to which that often fall prey. Today, thanks to this project, the first group of young girls who graduated in 2006 have gone on to become university students. With 100 percent of these girls being admitted to university, their success rate is much higher than the national average. So that they can focus their efforts on studying, the association offers free accommodation in Phnom Penh.
Happy Chandara also offers medical assistance (medicines, vaccines and dental assistance), as well as food to the families. To find out more about this project, visit their website https://www.toutes-a-l-ecole.org/en/
“Leukemia is a very tough opponent for one, but not for one hundred thousand”
This is the motto of the Unoentrecienmil foundation, a non-profit organization created in 2012 with the aim of supporting research and finding a cure for childhood leukemia. After his son Guzmán was diagnosed with this disease, José Carnero, the foundation’s president, started this initiative to raise funds so as to advance research and seek a cure for childhood leukemia. In 2017 they raised over 700,000 euros and allocated around 450,000 euros to the various research grants they offer, as well as the awareness-raising projects they run. They are currently working with over 60 medical specialists from a range of children’s hospitals and universities. In 2019 they received a record number of applications for the 6th Annual Unoentrecienmil Research Grant, from 15 projects headed by leading Spanish researchers.
They recently launched Trueloveproject, an initiative whereby the public can purchase digital cards that contribute to the search for a cure for this disease: a two euro card enables 51 minutes of research to be undertaken in this field. We can also help by sending an SMS text message, making sporadic donations or becoming members, participating in charitable races or offering our free time as volunteers.
You can visit the organization’s website at https://unoentrecienmil. org/ and the homepage of the Trueloveproject at https://www. trueloveproject.org/
