Let’s give them books of contemporary French literature.
Humanitarian project sponsored by writer Sylvain Tesson.
In front of me in the room, the girls stood up and introduced themselves. They were learning French in the autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh, from which 100,000 Armenians were expelled by Azerbaijan in September 2023.
They recount the painful exodus of their families, the feeling of abandonment and then the welcome they received in Armenia. One of them weeps silently as she recalls her heartbreak, while another sings a song from her homeland. Behind them, a library of books in French.
We are at the Centre Francophone SPFA in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, where Hélène and Habetnak, who run the centre, have invited me. In Paris, I met Janik, the warm and enterprising president of the association.
‘We do have books of classic French literature, but we don’t have any of the contemporary French literature that we’d so much like to read’, the young students told me.
In Armenia, there are nearly 300 schools and around ten French-speaking centres where French is taught, from primary school to university.
In Ilijan, for example, we were welcomed into a school by a small delegation including the French ambassador, the president of the rural mayors of France and members of the Fonds Arméniens de France. The pupils sang their national anthem, then a Jacques Brel song, recited poems and surprised us with a Marseillaise.
I found the same atmosphere in Goris, in the province of Syunik on the border with Azerbaijan, where Carmen enthusiastically runs the SPFA French-speaking centre, which welcomes students and refugees who come to meet up, help each other, work in the sewing workshop and learn French, which for them is a window on the world.
How can we help them?
What I feel is the vital need for Armenians not to be alone in adversity and to be able to count on support and friends.
For them, learning French means discovering another language, another culture, another country, and also being able to share their own. As always and as everywhere, the smallest peoples are the most threatened when they live surrounded by large, powerful and aggressive countries. Armenia is still under threat today.
Back in Yerevan, we spoke to Olivier Deccotignies and Dominique Vaysse from the embassy’s cooperation and cultural action department. We share the same observation, that there is a clear lack of contemporary French-language literature in libraries.
Together with our readers and the partners who will be supporting this project, we can offer schoolchildren and students a wonderful Christmas present with these books, which we hope will soon be available in French-speaking schools, colleges, universities, libraries and centres in Armenia.
We’re thinking of Daniel Pennac, Marie Desplechin, Anna Gavalda, Amin Maalouf and, in the world of comics, Enki Bilal, Riad Sattouf and many others.
Our aim is to collect 2,500 to 3,000 new books, selected according to the level of French, from the age of 6 up to 18 and beyond. To achieve this, we have selected 76 schools and libraries in the country’s 11 regions that will receive these books as soon as we have the necessary funding and all the books.
And we’re already dreaming of all those books on the library shelves and all those readers who will be able to discover new authors, today’s literary works and even comic strips and the latest methods of teaching French as a foreign language.
This project could be yours.
To make this dream come true, we need your support – readers, foundations, associations, local authorities and institutions – both to finance this project and to promote it, support it and give it the visibility and publicity that will encourage other similar initiatives.
With this project, we will also be paying tribute to Charles Aznavour, whose 100th birthday we are celebrating, and to Missak and Mélinée Manouchian, who are buried today in the Panthéon in Paris.
The project has already received the support of writer Sylvain Tesson, the Syndicat National de l’Edition and its president, Vincent Montagne, the French ambassador to Armenia, Olivier Deccotignies, the Armenian ambassador to France, Hasmik Tolmajian, the Centres francophones SPFA and its president, Janik Manissian, and of course the association and magazine Défis Humanitaires, which is organising it. Other partners will be joining them in the coming weeks.
Publishers have been asked to donate these new books in response to a call from the Syndicat National de l’Edition, and we have already received a thousand books in our warehouse in Paris.
Other books are in the process of being dispatched, and we now desperately need your donation to finance the costs inherent in the project (transport of books and customs clearance, logistics, delegation and travel to Armenia, communication and information for partners and donors).
I invite you to make a donation today to this wonderful project ‘Armenia, books of contemporary French literature for students’, here: (faireundon) for which we will send you a tax receipt.
This project depends on you! Thank you for making it possible (faireundon).
Many thanks for the students in Armenia.
Alain Boinet.
Chairman.
Défis Humanitaires.
PS/ We will keep you regularly informed of the progress of your support for this project. If necessary, you can contact us at: contact@défishumanitaires.com
