by Arwa al-Basha

June 26, 2017

Syria Deeply

https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2017/06/26/scavenging-for-books-beneath-the-rubble-in-daraa

Teachers and volunteers in a rural Daraa town are braving bullets and airstrikes to rescue books from beneath the wreckage and stock a new public library. Their aim is to assist local students in the difficult task of finding resources in war-torn Syria.

ISTANBUL – The sight of people sifting through rubble – searching for survivors of an attack or rummaging for belongings – is not uncommon in rebel-held parts of Daraa province. But in the southern Syrian town of Inkhel, roughly 34 miles (55km) north of Daraa city, a group of volunteers is scavenging for something else entirely.

Since the start of this year, teachers and volunteers have collected roughly 7,000 books from houses and libraries destroyed by Syrian government attacks in the rural town in Daraa. Rather than letting them wither away in moldy cellars or stuffy storage rooms, the rescued volumes are being used to stock the newly founded Ajyal Public Library.

“The main goals of the library are to fight the regime with education … and serve college students in opposition-controlled areas,” Loai Abu Abdou, a 34-year-old math teacher and one of the founders of Ajyal (Generations), told Syria Deeply.

Rebel-held parts of Daraa, once the seat of 2011 protests against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, have been the target of an intense government campaign over the past two months. Roughly 600 barrel bombs, 200 airstrikes and 91 napalm bombs have been dropped on the province in the first two weeks of June alone, according to estimates by Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets.

Inkhil, classified by archaeologists as one of the most import