In this social bookstore, books of all kinds are offered at affordable prices, varying from 75 to 150 gourdes.
At 92, Rue Grégoire in Pétion-Ville, a metal barrier, in a recessed wall, opens onto the premises of Livres Solidaires Haïti.
In this social bookstore, books of all kinds are offered at affordable prices, varying from 75 to 150 gourdes. This is an opportunity for people with modest incomes, in a city where acquiring a good book often requires thousands of gourdes.
Books arranged on a shelf at the social bookstore “Livres Solidaires Haïti” in Pétion-Ville, Saturday February 24, 2024. | © Jean Feguens Regala/AyiboPost
Wendo Durette, a medical student at Dr. Aristide Foundation University, exclaims: “This is truly a godsend! » He has just gone to the social bookstore to obtain documents in his field of study.
A customer has just paid for several books that he had finally selected.
A few cubits from Place Saint-Pierre in Pétion-Ville, the social bookstore “Libres Solidaires Haïti” drags its architectural lines among the trunks of trees scattered here and there in a play of breeze of overwhelming serenity.
Barely through the front door, the shelves reveal a multitude of varied books, in English and French: novels, documentaries, scientific works, comics, and many others. Their price – reasonable in the context of unemployment in Haiti – arouses the interest of reading and escape enthusiasts.
In a cozy atmosphere, Georgeline Joseph, an Education Sciences student at the University of Saint François d’Assise in Haiti, is curiously looking for a philosophy book among the shelves.
Around the tables set up in the courtyard of Livres Solidaires Haiti in Pétion-Ville, two customers take the opportunity to discover the books they have chosen.
Since the beginning of 2023, Joseph has been frequenting the bookstore assiduously, after a friend praised him, during a conversation, for the accessibility of books at a lower cost. Since then, a deep relationship has been forged between the student and this space.
While smiling, she confides: “I was fascinated by the space and the quantity of books it contains. I feel incredibly good here. »
These customers spend time immersing themselves in reading the books they have purchased.
In the sales room, a pearly white refrigerator is available to customers to quench their thirst, in addition to the coffee with its captivating scent offered.
A few steps from the entrance, in the courtyard, around three tables are surrounded by chairs where customers can relax, bathed in the play of shadows sketched by the rays of the sun filtering through the branches which shade the place.
Installed in this peaceful setting, Dorisca Wesly, student at the Faculty of Ethnology of the State University of Haiti (UEH), remembers the episode when, for the first time, he placed an order “here” of 600 books for an educational institution. An order that cost them less than 75,000 gourdes.
The young man mobilizes the current vagaries of the country to portray the importance of the bookstore.
“Through books, this space allows me to distance myself from the country’s problems, in addition to allowing me to set up my own personal library,” he adds.
A customer discovers CDs in a section of the Livres Solidaires Haïti social bookstore in Pétion-Ville.
Myrlande Lafortune, a manager of the bookstore, reveals that Livres Solidaires Haïti receives approximately two to three containers of approximately 35,000 books per year and, on average, 60,000 books annually.
Founded in 2013, Livres Solidaires Haiti is a bookstore with a social vocation that offers used books at affordable prices to Haitians. These books, collected abroad thanks to partnerships.
Lafortune, herself a book enthusiast, emphasizes: “Our books are not sold. The amount requested is simply a contribution that we are asking from people, and which helps us ensure the daily management of the bookstore, in order to maintain our autonomy. »
“Since our beginnings, we have already distributed more than 600,000 books in Haiti,” she specifies.
Founded in 2013, Livres Solidaires Haiti is a bookstore with a social vocation that offers used books at affordable prices to Haitians. These books, collected abroad thanks to partnerships.
Established in Haiti three years after the deadly tremors of the earthquake of January 12, 2010, the bookstore was first presented under the label of an education support project, where the books collected were sold in sessions of one-off sales in certain schools and universities across the country.
From 2016, managers considered making it easier for customers to access its shelves to directly purchase the books of their choice.
Two partners collect books abroad for Livres Solidaires Haiti, according to Myrlande Lafortune. These are the Association Livres Solidaires de Belgique, with which they have a memorandum of understanding and which exclusively supplies them with books, and that of the ex-parliamentarians of Quebec, a structure based in Canada.
Béa Darline Legros, one of the booksellers of Livres Solidaires Haïti, in Pétion-Ville.
Faced with those who believe that the culture of reading is in decline in Haiti, Lafortune puts forward a different vision.
“In the COVID-19 period, we sold more than 23,000 books in two days. Which proves that, strangely, people read in this country,” she argues, adding that the bookstore had to face technical unemployment because it no longer had enough books to sell. “The aisle leading to the bookstore was crowded with people,” she adds.
According to Béa Darline Legros, receptionist at Livres Solidaires Haiti since 2022, the bookstore serves more than 1,000 institutions across the country, including schools, churches, book clubs and compassion projects.
“Our goal is to make reading accessible to a wide audience, the dissemination of knowledge on a large scale while at the same time promoting social inclusion,” reports Legros.
A customer paying for the books she has chosen.
While he harbored the dream of becoming a poet and novelist, Marc Sony Ricot, cultural journalist, discovered an interest in bookselling in 2016, while he was living in Sarthe at the time.
Amazed by the profusion of books and authors, this young man quickly considered this space as “a place of anchoring, dreams and passion”.
In the COVID-19 period, we sold more than 23,000 books in two days. Which proves that, strangely, people read in this country.
For Marc Sony Ricot, this social bookstore played a role «a major role in his career as a cultural journalist in Port-au-Prince.
The insecurity plaguing the country also seems to have an impact on the bookstore’s activities, exacerbated by the difficulties in transporting containers from the port of disembarkation to their premises in Port-au-Prince. These difficulties are notably due to toll points and customs fees, which have almost doubled in recent years.
New customers arrive, euphoric, at the Livres Solidaires Haïti social bookstore, in Pétion-Ville.
Myrlande Lafortune confides: “Because of the insecurity, our customer base has decreased considerably, which now forces us to organize other activities to attract new customers.”
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On Saturday February 24, 2024, the bookstore held a crazy clearance sale, with special offers on all of its categories, including 10 books for 1000 gourdes for category A, 8 paperback novels for 500 gourdes, 15 magazines for 500 water bottles, among others.
For almost ten years, the “Libres solidaires Haïti” bookstore has been sharing books.
Around the tables set up in the courtyard of Livres Solidaires Haiti in Pétion-Ville, three customers take the opportunity to discover the books they have chosen.
In the voice of Marc Sony Ricot, who attributes to Victor Hugo the intelligence of these words, “Whoever you are who wants to cultivate, invigorate, edify, soften, soothe, put books everywhere! “.
And Solidaires Haiti books seem to respond admirably to this call.
Students came to purchase books from the Livres Solidaires Haïti social bookstore in Pétion-Ville.
Par Junior Legrand
Cover image: A customer enjoys reading one of the books discovered in the Livres Solidaires Haïti social bookstore. | © Jean Feguens Regala/AyiboPost
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