ASCHIANA is non-political non-governmental and humanitarian organization registered with ministry of Economy, which has working protocols with different Ministries in Afghanistan in different provinces. ASCHIANA’s main goal is to support and assist war affected children, children with special disabilities, street working children, and IDP’s and their families in Afghanistan.

ASCHIANA, with the support of Sharjah/IBBY, started a mobile library project to expand the capacity of the young children to read and increase their interest in books. ASCHIANA aimed to provide mobile libraries to all the informal schools it runs in the different provinces of Afghanistan, and this was the pilot project aimed to kick start that process. The mobile libraries provided the children with access to books, reading materials and story videos.

The project’s duration was 6 months with a 4-month implementation period to provide mobile library activities. Along with providing mobile libraries there were also teams of assistants due to the fact that many or all the parents in the camps are illiterate. The project focuses on encouraging marginalized children to read through training reading assistants, library assistants and storytellers, and providing reading materials via the mobile libraries.

The project identified 10 camps that were visited on a weekly basis. In each camp 100 children were reached, making the total number of disenfranchised children reached 1,000.

Regional IBBY conferences are a common occurrence in most of the world, yet although representatives of the IBBY national section in the Central Asia and North Africa have met on several occasions, there had never been a large regional conference held in the Central Asia and North Africa Region.

The First IBBY Conference for the Region of Central Asia and North Africa was held on 21 and 22 April 2013 and featured 10 separate sessions over two days. 40 speakers from 20 countries across the CANA Region and beyond shared their experiences and opinions on a variety of topics related to children’s literature and reading promotion. The conference focused on identifying practical suggestions and steps for cooperation and networking on national, regional and international levels, as well as encouraging the establishment of new national sections of IBBY in countries where IBBY currently does not have established sections. The conference was attended by representatives of all 9 IBBY National sections in the region, including Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Tunisia and the UAE. The languages of the conference were Arabic and English, with simultaneous interpretation provided.

During the conference, 17 initiatives and personal testimonies related to the promotion of reading among children in schools and the community, including children living in disadvantaged areas, post-war societies and under occupation, as well as children with disabilities were presented.

The program included the presentation of IBBY national section experiences from Palestine, Pakistan, Tunisia, Afghanistan and Iran, as well as special sessions dedicated to the field of publishing during which publishers had the opportunity to present their experiences and points of view. The program also allowed authors and illustrators to share their experiences and challenges in writing for young adults, tackling issues related to politics and cultural diversity, as well as illustrating for children. Furthermore, the content of Arabic and Iranian children’s books, specifically in relation to their portrayal of cross-national relations and disability, was also explored.

Alif Laila Book Bus Society has been working on promoting reading and quality books for every child in Pakistan since 1978. In October 2013, with the funds awarded, the IBBY Pakistan held a three-day conference on “Setting Up Community Libraries For Children” at Lahore.

Representatives from different NGO’s and CBO’s working in the education sector attended this exciting conference. There were participants from cities all over Pakistan such as Chitral, Dir, Quetta, Mohammad Khan Tando, Islamabad, and Peshawar to name a few.

The focus of the conference was to involve organizations working in disaster areas in order to get books to the most vulnerable. These organizations will reach out to their communities and have the two-fold effect of spreading the idea of innovative and interactive reading spaces and fulfilling Alif Laila’s dream of opening up libraries in every nook and corner of Pakistan.
Architects, puppeteers, story tellers, interactive theatre trainers conferred on different aspects of setting up and running low cost, vibrant community libraries for children. Speakers conducted various workshops in which participants were divided into different groups and were given materials to make beautifully interesting spaces for children to read in. The active participation of all involved depicted how well they understood the idea of building interactive libraries within their means and not necessarily spending a lot of cash.

Work then commenced to stage 2, which entailed a study tour of the community libraries set up by Pratham in India, building up closer working relations with them, sharing the expertise gained with the participants and organizations in Pakistan, awarding prizes to the three most innovative libraries and book bundles to the next five. In short this project has caused a movement for community libraries all over Pakistan.