Calgary man creates multicultural version of little free library to share ‘power of knowledge’

Syed Hassan has always enjoyed spending as much time as possible reading.

“I’m a book lover.”

An immigrant who came to Canada from Pakistan in 2009, Hassan has now found a new way to share his love of reading with other newcomers.

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With the help of middle school students in his northeast Calgary neighbourhood, he’s created a multicultural version of the little free library on the lawn outside his house.

Hassan has stocked it with donated books in several languages, including Punjabi, Urdu, Russian and Korean.

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He got the idea after noticing the challenges facing new immigrants.

“Seniors and newcomers, they have no ride to go to the library,” Hassan said.

“People are going to electronic media and just away from the books. My mission is: people want to come back to books.”

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Grade 9 student Alizeh Fatima was part of the school team that built the little library for Hassan.

“I have a lot of family members who are not so good with English,” Fatima said. “So I think this is important to have.”