The Human Library™ is a concept created by Ronni Abergel, Dany Abergel, Christoffer Erichsen and Asma Mouna of the Danish youth organisation: Stop The Violence in 2000 and it is now operational on five continents. It is a library of human beings, individuals, that each represent a group in the community that are somehow exposed to stigma, prejudice and/or discrimination.

The Human Library™ aims to establish a safe conversational space, where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and hopefully answered by the Human Book on loan. It was developed to challenge societal prejudices wherever and for whatever reasons they occur, and to help people form a better understanding of those with whom they share their communities.

The Human Library™ offers its patrons to become readers, by taking a person out on loan for a conversation on the topic/issue, that they represent. i.e. the Police Officer would talk about stereotypes and prejudices that police officers meet in their job and answer any question the reader may have about this topic.

Conversations are offered to a duration of thirty minutes and this is not a storytelling session, but rather an experience sharing with built-in Q&A. The outcome of the session and direction of the talk is dependent on what the reader/s asks about and it is the privilege of both parties, that they can end the conversation at any point they may wish.

Pune Chapter Organising Team
Under licence from the parent organisation The Human Library™, Denmark, the Global Harmony Trust (GHT) has taken the initiative to work in line with the above concept to make our society a better place to live in. The Pune Chapter is being organised with the team of dedicated volunteers and committed Human Books.

The Readers
We intend to focus primarily on youth and students, but the library is wide open for professionals and mature members of the society. Membership is purely on invite.

The Books
A Human Book is a person who has volunteered to challenge prejudice through respectful conversation with members of the public, who borrow them. They will have a title that relates to their experience of prejudice and/or discrimination. Therefore only people who have experienced prejudice due to issues such as race, sex, age, disability, sexual preference, gender identity, class, religion/belief, lifestyle choices or other aspects of who they are can be a Book. The title they choose must directly reflect this in order to challenge the Reader to reflect on the stigmatization that occurs.

Keeping the above guidelines in view we intend to have a very rich selection of extremely interesting books on various topics in our Human Library. We hope that our Readers will immensely benefit from this unique reading experience in understanding the human values and accepting human diversity.

HOW TO BECOME A BOOK

Thinking about signing up to become a book in the Human Library? We always need new books and have a network of local organizers and book depots around the world, that not only recycle our books, but also ensure they are well kept in between events.

We promise only that being a book in the Human Library is more than you expect and something you will never forget.

So please fill in this application form to the best of your ability. Once processed you will be contacted by either a local Human Library organizer or Book Depot Manager or you will be swept up in our global book pool for storage, until we either go online or reach your area.

The Human Library, Pune Chapter
C/o. The Global Harmony Trust
www.globalharmonytrust.org

Email
globalharmonytrust2010@gmail.com
globalharmonytrust2017@gmail.com
0091-9890469111
0091-9096119354

Website
humanlibrary.org
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