Focus IBBY

New Sections in 2012

IBBY is very pleased to be able to welcome three new sections this year. Full contact details can be found on the IBBY website at www.ibby.org under IBBY Worldwide.

Afghanistan

The newest section was accepted by the Executive Committee at its meeting in Bologna in March. The newly formed Afghan IBBY is based at the Aschiana headquarters in Kabul. Aschiana (“nest” in Dari) was founded in 1995 by Engineer Mohamed Yousef to help street children in Kabul. He had witnessed the desperation and poor conditions of children he encountered on the street and established Aschiana to provide a refuge where they could learn educational and vocational skills. Many of you will remember that Eng Yousef gave a very moving talk about his work at the IBBY Congress in Santiago de Compostela in 2010. For more information about his work go to: www.aschiana.org.

Aschiana is working with its partners to bring children and books together through the formation of the IBBY section. The new IBBY section comprises the following organizations Aschiana, Sanayee Development organization (SDO), Noor Education Centre, Afghanistan Book House (ABH), Ministry of Higher Education, Afghan Academy of Science, Goethe institute (German Culture Room), Tarawat Publishing (Children’s Book Publisher), Child Safe—Sweden, and Aina.

Contact: Eng. Mohamad Yousef: yousefaschiana@yahoo.com, or Ms Massuma Jafari at the Afghanistan Book House: jafari.massuma@gmail.com

Azerbaijan

The IBBY Executive Committee accepted the new Azerbaijani Section of IBBY in February 2012. The section is housed at the Republic Children’s Library named after Firudin bay Kocharli in Baku. The Library has most recently been involved in studying the situation of reading and libraries for children in Azerbaijan, the results of which were presented at a conference with the title: Reading of Children: Books and the Development of the Personality. Over the years and with the support of the Ministry of Culture and publishing houses, they have cooperated with libraries in other countries by donating collections of children’s books from Azerbaijan to sister public libraries in Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Bosnia, Slovakia and Germany. The new section’s partners include the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, “Beshik” Children’s Publishing House that has issued more than 112 titles of children’s books, the newspapers “Tumurdjuk”, “Zaman” and writers including Gulzar Ibrahimova, Alemdar Gulizade, Solmaz Amanova, Zahid Halil and Sevinj Nuruqizi.

Contact: Ms Qulieva Fizura Museib or Ms Dadashova Zahira Jabir: childlibbaku@yahoo.com

Tunisia

In January 2012 the Executive Committee accepted the application submitted by a group of experts in Tunisia to form a new National Section. The field of children’s books publishing in Tunisia is lagging behind when compared to that in Lebanon or Palestine: both in terms of quantity and quality. However, since the Arab Spring there is now an emergence of specialized publishing houses that are keen to improve the quality of children’s books. The new national section is made up of people who have made fruitful contributions to children’s literature. Some are researchers in children’s literature; others are members in associations whose objectives are to promote reading among young people and encourage high quality books for children as well as to foster research that improves children’s books in terms of form and content. The Sfax Children’s Book Fair Association is also playing a key role in promoting reading and encouraging high quality books. Other members include award-wining writers, many of whom have been also been jury members for well-known competitions, illustrators, publishers, librarians and the Division of Public Reading from the Ministry of Culture.

Contact: Ms Wafa Thabet Mezghani: wafa_mezghani@hotmail. com or Mr Mohamed Salah Maalej: mohamed.maalej@gnet.tn

Andersen Winners 2012

Following the 2012 Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury meeting in Basel on 10/11 March 2012, Jury President María Jesús Gil announced at the IBBY press conference at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair on 19 March that the 2012 winners are the Argentinean author María Teresa Andruetto for the quality of her writing and the Czech...