– Waking up to reading between the swing and the slide
Fiona Acha-Orbea, educator in a children’s life center, imagined an open-air library for children in the Boveresses–Praz-Séchaud district.
Published today at 6:30 p.m.
Fiona Acha-Orbea’s open-air library was inaugurated this Friday, in the middle of Book Week.
24 hours/Odile Meylan
At first glance, this is a very unusual place to install a library. Next to the communal gardens of Praz-Séchaud and at the foot of the gray rental buildings, the Book Journey was inaugurated this Friday in the Lausanne district of Boveresses–Praz-Séchaud. On the playground, between the swings and the slide. Ultimately, it is the best implementation to achieve the goal set by its founder Fiona Acha-Orbea: to encourage young people to read.
“Books are my whole life,” says Fiona Acha-Orbea straight away. The Boveresses–Praz-Séchaud district too. The young woman has been an educator at the Grangette child life center for seventeen years now. “I always wanted to bring people together around reading.” For two years now, she has been installing an open-air library for toddlers, every Friday afternoon on the neighborhood playground. With the means at hand.
A donation of 10,000 francs
Blankets placed on the floor, a few boxes of books and she let chance encounters happen. “I came at the beginning with a dozen children who I look after at the child life center. Then others joined us. There were also people who were on the playground and who approached us, with their children, to hear stories.” So much so that in the end, almost twenty people attended his outdoor literary meeting.
The children of the Boveresses–Praz-Séchaud district meet every Friday afternoon for an introduction to children’s literature, on the neighborhood playground.
24 hours/Odile Meylan
Thanks to a significant donation from the Halte-jeux Rataboum association, amounting to 10,000 francs, Fiona Acha-Orbea has moved up a gear. Gone is the little red cart that he used to transport all his equipment to the playground. “With the money, I was able to acquire a secure and above all airtight container, in which I can store everything a few steps from here,” marvels the person in charge of the Book Trip.
No princesses or superheroes
Most of the money received was used to purchase children’s books, his priority. But don’t look for books about princesses or superheroes in the checkouts. “I assume that they have these types of books at home. Here, I offer other stories, based on diversity, the world, friendship or sustainability.”
This Friday, in the middle of Book Week, was the official inauguration of Fiona Acha-Orbea’s open-air library, open to all families in the neighborhood. All the students from the neighboring Coteau-Fleuri primary school, almost 300 blondes, brunettes and redheads, were invited. There were storytellers to encourage them to read.
Thanks to a donation of 10,000 francs, Fiona Acha-Orbea was able to buy books, blue chairs and a container to store all her equipment just a stone’s throw from the playground.
24 hours/Odile Meylan
“Ours is a special neighborhood. Many children do not have access to books. It may be a question of money, as books remain expensive and for many families who are less fluent in French than in other neighborhoods, this is by far not a priority. And here as elsewhere, screens have replaced books.” The Voyage du livre library’s mission is to remedy this. This new offering complements the already existing offering of the neighborhood library located in the Maison des Boveresses.
Laurent Antonoff has been a journalist in the Vaud section since 1990. After covering the regions of Northern Vaud and the Riviera, he joined the Lausanne editorial team at the turn of the millennium. A novelist in his spare time, he won the Berner Zeitung Local Journalism Prize in 1998.More informations
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