KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — What comes to mind when you hear the word “library”? Rows and rows of books on shelves, waiting to be read? Perhaps a little mystery with Sherlock Holmes or adventure with Alice in Wonderland?
But what if there was a library where the books talked to us? No, I am not talking about audio books but a human library.
Well, a human library is where the humans are books. Like a regular library, you borrow a “book”, talk to the human for 15 minutes and return the “book” to the shelf.
Earlier this year, Malaysia hosted its first Human Library event at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre and I was there as one of the “readers.”
The queue of “readers” was growing as the organisers prepped the “books” that morning. I was surprised to see so many people turn up because it was a weekday.
When I flipped through the profiles of the 12 “books,” I knew that the idea of the “reading” was to change my perception of the kind of person my “book” would be.
Even then I was very surprised when I met my “book” because she was not what I imagined a sex worker would look like. Here was a middle-aged woman with a kind face. She looked nervous but she was polite.
What happened afterwards? Well, to put it in one word: Mind-blowing.
A month later, I was in Scope Group Asia’s office to talk about their pilot project and also, social enterprise.
How did Dr Shariha Khalid, co-founder of Scope Group Asia, find these “books”?
“For this pilot, it was through our network. Our partner NGOs, our friends and family members… so we mobilised our own. Because what we did initially is we listed down the type of stigma and discriminations that exist in Malaysian society and following that, we looked at our existing network, friends and family to see if any of them fit the stigma or fit the discrimination,” said Dr Shariha Khalid.
A medical doctor and former researcher at Imperial College, UK she has a passion for the marginalised. She is constantly coming up with ideas to address issues close to her heart. Through the Human Library, which was started in 2000 by Scope Group Asia’s co-founder Christoffer Erichsen for Danish youth organisation Stop The Violence, Dr Shariha enabled 90 “readers” in Kuala Lumpur to understand the plight of the discriminated.
Examples of some of the “books” that morning were The Sex Worker, The Transgender, The Muslim Feminist, The Person Living With HIV, The Lady with the Veil, The African Student and many more.
She even had people asking whether they could borrow the human and take him/her home!
“When readers borrow a ‘book’, they have to return it in the condition that was the same as before. They can’t bring it home!” said Dr Shariha with a laugh.
On a more serious note, she said it was very challenging for the “books” to talk about their own lives.
“We originally had 20 ‘books’ but in the end, eight chickened out,” she said.
In 2011, her team researched to find out if Malaysia was ready to accept the Human Library. Two years later, the idea came to fruition.
“The reason why I started Scope was because I saw that there was a real need to address some of the issues that society has not yet addressed,” she said.
“I could see that things weren’t being addressed. Going to these poorer countries and seeing that things are not what they’re supposed to. The intentions are good but there were still gaps in the delivery, there was still gaps in terms of what the communities were still receiving. And there was still gaps in positively affecting the health and well-being of these communities,” said Dr Shariha.
In 2009, Christoffer Erichsen and Dr Shariha Khalid started operations in Kuala Lumpur. They realised that the issues that needed to be addressed are in Asia.
“Being Malaysian, it’s nice to come back home,” she remarks.
Is Scope Group Asia a social enterprise then?
“Yes and no. I think the term social entrepreneurship or social enterprise is very much misunderstood.
“The way we use the profits we earn and any income and how it all gets pumped into creating more programmes and doing more -- yes we fit the bill of a social enterprise according to the descriptions available but I don’t say to people we’re a social enterprise unless I’m within a community that understands what a social enterprise is.”
Co-founder of SEA (Social Enterprise Alliance) Ellynita Lamin defines social enterprise as an organisation that focuses on social good as their core philosophy. The money part comes in second. Part, if not all the profits made from the social enterprise is then injected back into the social enterprise to continue the social work that’s been designed to do. It’s sustainable and it should be standalone without any form of greed coming to play.
In simpler terms, it’s social good first then funding second. A full-fledged social enterprise should be able to grow the community without exhausting any of the members financially. Instead, it is self-sufficient and it’s main purpose is to give to society.
“Businesses need to already incorporate the social aspect on how they operate and run instead of doing CSR later as an afterthought,” said Dr Shariha.
For her, her ultimate goal is to have companies focusing on social good when they start up, not after years and years of making money.
Unfortunately, most companies only start CSR when they have extra money in hand. Scope Group Asia helps organisation by addressing that, coming up with sustainable systems for social good.
