Hippocrene Books Donates Bilingual Dictionaries for Refugees

Hippocrene Books, one of America’s foremost publishers of foreign-language reference books and ethnic cookbooks, has donated 75 of its popular English-Arabic/Arabic-English dictionaries to our reading relief project in the Bredjing, Treguine, and Gaga refugee camps in eastern Chad. The brand new copies of the Hippocrene Standard Dictionary: Arabic-English/English-Arabic, the Arabic Compact Dictionary: Arabic-English/English-Arabic, and the Arabic Practical Dictionary: Arabic-English/English-Arabic will help to advance the Darfur refugees along their "road to freedom," learning English.

Even native readers of English find they can learn more from their books by looking up unfamiliar words in a dictionary, and, to a much greater extent, these dictionaries will increase the knowledge the Darfuris gain from reading. In combination with the Headway English course we just shipped to the camps, Hippocrene Books' donation will enable the Darfuris to read more and understand more of what they read. All the benefits we hope reading will provide for these people in crisis — educational, occupational, and mental health — will be increased by the dictionaries.

We appreciate greatly that Hippocrene is supplying us with a diversity of titles, because each has its own best use. The Compact Dictionary (Gaafar and Wightwick, 2004) is ultra-portable, the Practical Dictionary (Awde and Smith, 2004) has a large selection of modern business and technical terms, and the Hippocrene Standard Dictionary (Wortabet and Porter, 1995) is the must-have comprehensive reference. These dictionaries will be treasured.

Thank you Hippocrene Books!

While this donation satisfies a major part of our goal, we are still seeking 75 more English-Arabic/Arabic-English dictionaries for the camps (total population 60,000, one-third students) and 50 French-Arabic/Arabic-French dictionaries for nearby Chadian villages. You can help by donating in-kind or financially. Before sending us a dictionary, please check that it is listed here, as we are trying to match very specific requests from the field. If you have a different dictionary you think might be appropriate, please contact us.