The director of Human Resources at LeYa Group, in partnership with the Western Lisbon Health Unit (ULSLO), declared that the initiative aims to promote reading as a catalyst for social change and to engage the publishing house’s staff, who manage and prepare the books.
Marta Branquinho explained that the ‘LeYa para Cuidar’ project originated from an invitation by ULSLO via the Santa Cruz Hospital and has since expanded.
“It made perfect sense for this project to take flight,” commented Branquinho, highlighting its current presence in the Egas Moniz, São Francisco Xavier, and Santa Cruz hospitals.
The publishing house intends to extend the initiative to the Hospital de Santa Maria, which already has storytellers under the ‘Os contadores de histórias LeYa’ program, launched on Children’s Day when the publisher donated 150 children’s books and engaged staff to narrate stories to hospitalized children.
Every Friday, volunteer pairs from LeYa visit the Hospital de Santa Maria to read stories to children admitted or undergoing treatment.
“It is absolutely rewarding,” Branquinho noted, emphasizing the emotional impact of the initiative: “We are altering at least part of the day for that boy or girl, and also for that mother or father.”
The library at Hospital Santa Maria is set to open by mid-November.
“We believe that by mid-November at the latest, we will have four exclusive LeYa libraries in four major hospitals in Lisbon,” she stated.
With over 500 books distributed in each hospital, LeYa seeks to tailor the libraries to each facility’s needs, determining literary genres through dialogue with the institutions.
“They requested the literary genres, and we selected the books according to their requests,” she noted.
At the Francisco Xavier Hospital, the collection prominently features juvenile literature, while adult titles predominate at Santa Cruz and Egas Moniz hospitals.
Beyond the libraries, the publisher emphasized the role of reading in humanizing healthcare.
“We are heading in the right direction, and LeYa wants to position itself correctly,” Branquinho stated, recalling the project with prisons and partnerships with African schools.
In the first half of 2025, more than 11,000 books were donated, many of them to Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Angola.
The director indicated the libraries exclusively contain books by the publisher.
The next phase involves extending the partnership with the hospitals already involved, introducing new activities like storytelling sessions—’Os contadores de histórias LeYa’—and introducing other publisher products.
“The goal is to continue being this partner in more hospitals in the Lisbon region and, potentially, across the country,” she concluded.
LeYa will maintain the libraries at ULSLO hospitals accessible to all—patients, visitors, and staff—with its own borrowing system.
