Librairies Without Borders (LWB)

Making access to knowledge a driver of resilience and empowerment for everyone

Since its foundation in 2007 on the initiative of historian Patrick Weil, LWB has been campaigning for a fresh approach to cultural cooperation with developing countries by rethinking book collection in order to create libraries that are as close as possible to communities and their needs.

Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, LWB developed expertise that is now widely recognised in humanitarian contexts. In partnership with designer Philippe Starck, it created the Ideas Box, a mobile media library designed to be deployed in all environments, even the most precarious. At the same time, the organisation is embracing digital technology, exploring innovative teaching methods, the digitisation of knowledge and the challenges of connectivity for isolated communities, notably through the Ideas Cube and the Kajou cards.

In 2024, nearly 470,000 people benefited from the cultural and humanitarian innovations developed by the organisation. It has trained more than 17,000 cultural mediators in 24 countries to share access to culture, education and information with the most vulnerable communities, thereby creating spaces of refuge and peace.

As part of its annual emergency support programme, Milk for Good contributed to the continuation of an emergency education project in Syria and the roll-out of micro-libraries in Mayotte.