AWCH Books on Wheels

Do you have access to used books in Farsi, Portuguese, Turkish, Spanish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Greek, Polish, Romanian, Albanian or English?

Club member Thelma F and long-time Hamburg resident Judith H visit patients in Altona Hospital as part of a volunteer Grüne Damen program for helping patients in small ways such as running errands, writing letters, etc. There, Thelma runs the hospital’s mobile library, Books on Wheels. Her library is short on books in the above-mentioned languages.

The AWC Hamburg Board agrees that collecting books in foreign languages would be a nice on-going project for the club. Many patients read no German and are disappointed because there are few or no books in their own language to help them pass the time. As expatriate women in Hamburg, the members of the American Women’s Club certainly can sympathize with the need to find a book in a familiar language, especially in times of loneliness, stress and boredom associated with a hospital stay.

Where can you find books in any of these foreign languages? Perhaps you have a friend from these countries who no longer needs the books? Perhaps you can purchase a stack cheaply at a flea market? Perhaps your cleaning lady is from one of these countries and would be willing to buy books with your money and give them to you (after reading them herself)? Perhaps you travel to some of these countries?

Many of us already send used stamps to club member Juliana S in Lübeck to support her workshop for the handicapped. It’s a small step from stamps to books, and a goal of 100 books by this time next year should be easy to achieve.

Discuss pick up options with Thelma or deliver books directly to her (she lives downtown) or Judith (who lives near the hospital) or deliver them to the hospital. If you take books directly to the hospital, mark them: für Frau Ahmadi, Patientenbibliothek, Spende vom American Women’s Club of Hamburg.

For more information, contact Thelma F (please see Membership Directory for phone number) or
Altona Krankenhaus, Paul Ehrlich Str. 1 (near the A7 Autobahn Othmarschen exit), Frau Ahmadi, tel 88 22 1025