TEHRAN – The Children’s Book Council of Iran has nominated the Children’s Cultural Development Center for the IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award 2024.

The council has nominated the center once again for its extraordinary endeavors in enhancing general knowledge, promoting and expanding children's culture and art, especially among those from rural and underprivileged areas. 

For the past twenty-two years, the Children's Cultural Development Center has been dedicated to establishing, equipping, and enhancing libraries in underprivileged rural, nomadic, and suburban areas across Iran. Their primary goal is to encourage and promote a love for reading among children. Training local forces, teachers, parents, and children and teenagers is one of its primary endeavors.

The center also plays a vital role in enhancing the capabilities of local communities and empowering them in various ways. This includes utilizing the potential of native and local forces to effectively manage libraries. 

Moreover, it aims to increase the level of community participation and engagement in local affairs. Additionally, the center focuses on identifying the unique facilities available in each area and introducing them to the local people. It also strives to leverage the indigenous skills of individuals to improve their cultural and economic well-being.

One of the main projects of the Children's Cultural Development Center is the implementation of the "Book in Circulation" project in sparsely populated rural and nomadic areas where setting up a library is not feasible. 

More than a hundred villages and nomadic areas in the provinces of South Khorasan, Khorasan Razavi, Khuzestan, North Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchistan, and Lorestan have successfully implemented this project. 

Special sacks filled with books, puzzles, drawing tools, and board games are transported to distant villages and nomadic regions. They are then entrusted to a teacher, who lends them to children and their parents. This allows them to engage in the joy of reading, as well as fostering discussions and activities in the classroom.

Although the Children's Cultural Development Center was Iran's nominee for the 2022 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award, it was Ilitaqsinniq - Pinnguaqta of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut in Canada that ultimately received the prestigious award.

The IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award is given biennially to one group or institution whose outstanding activities are judged to be making a lasting contribution to reading promotion programs for children and young people. 

The Award was established in 1986 and is sponsored by the Asahi Shimbun Newspaper Company of Japan.

Nominations are submitted by the National Sections of IBBY and may include reading promotion projects from any part of the world. The jury consists of members of the IBBY Executive Committee. The prize of $ 10,000 and a diploma is presented to the winning project at the biennial IBBY Congress.

ABU/