A Closer Look at IBBY's Call-to-Action for Refugee Children

A conversation with Wally De Doncker, Liz Page and Hasmig Chahinian of the International Board on Books for Young People

Interview and introduction by Scott Shoger

Interview

Liz Page: Bibliotherapy was first used in 1948 by psychologists to treat certain kinds of patients. A less clinical use of bibliotherapy was pioneered by IBBY Venezuela following the catastrophic mudslides outside Caracas in 1999. They found that by using books and stories the possibility to “heal” the effects of a tragedy through reading was demonstrated. In addition they found that stories could trigger a mechanism for finding coping strategies to face the realities of the situation.

The project was called Read to Live and members of Banco del Libro, the seat of IBBY Venezuela, began taking books to the children made homeless, many suffering from deep trauma. Every day, volunteers read stories to the children and sometimes their families. This had the effect of transporting the children away from the devastation around them. It would begin for five minutes a day and build up to longer periods. Gradually the children came out of their shock. Listening was also important as many who have these traumatic experiences need to talk about them. Reading specially selected books can open the way to talking about feelings and emotions.

Wally De Doncker: Using the same principles, the Children in Crisis program will not only provide immediate support and help, but will also make a long term impact in the communities, thus supporting IBBY’s belief that every child has the right to become a reader.

A few examples of the projects that have been supported by the IBBY Children in Crisis Fund are:

In 2010 Pakistan was hit by the worst floods in its 63-year history. Twenty million people were affected and, of those, nine million were children. Eleven thousand schools were swept away or rendered unusable. IBBY Pakistan – the Alif Laila Book Bus Society - with several NGOs/Government agencies worked in all five provinces of the country to distribute library kits for children affected.

Since 2008 IBBY has been supporting two children’s libraries in Gaza that are run and operated by IBBY Palestine. Following their destruction in 2014, IBBY launched an appeal for funds to rebuild these two libraries that had become such important parts of the children’s lives.

After a devastating earthquake shook and destroyed the lives of thousands in Haiti in 2010, IBBY International immediately launched an appeal to collect funds for a bibliotherapy project. IBBY Haiti identified the camps in which they could work and began working with the children. There were no books, but a printing press that had not been damaged was found and was used to reprint some books, which were then used by the volunteers.

World Libraries: How have professionals working in children’s literature responded thus far to this call for action? Did you have any expectations for the attention the call to action would generate – and if so how has the response compared to those expectations?

Wally De Doncker: There are many plans, but it will take time to develop. Two months is not enough. Nevertheless this week IBBY Netherlands and the Dutch children’s books writers and illustrators have started a solidarity action for the refugee children. They’ll work with books in Arabic. Members of IBBY Australia and IBBY New Zealand will start new projects in their countries in reply to the call. The European Conference about refugee children is a very important initiative.

New projects of the initiators have already started in the same spirit of the Call to Action.

In collaboration with the Municipality of Kallithea and the Network for Children’s Rights, the Greek Section of IBBY participated in the events celebrating the 2016 European Cultural Heritage Days for the second consecutive year. As part of the celebration, IBBY Greece organized an event with a theme, “YES to Tolerance – NO to Violence: Literary Narratives for Refugees,” based on literary excerpts narrated by authors who are members of IBBY Greece.

IBBY Sweden inaugurated its own Silent Books collection and has published a manual to be used by librarians, teachers and all who work with refugee children. The manual has been translated into English and IBBY Sweden has generously offered to share it with other IBBY Sections interested in using it in their own context. The manual can be downloaded from the IBBY website.

Officials from the UAE Board on Books for Young People (UAEBBY) recently visited the Red Crescent’s Emirati-Jordanian refugee camp in Mrajeeb Al Fhood in Jordan. As part of the “Kan Yama Kan” (Once upon a Time) initiative, the IBBY members conducted reading sessions and literature-themed educational and entertainment activities for the children living there. The delegation also donated the “Big Heart Library” with a diverse collection of 500 new children’s books.

The Silent Books Exhibition has been traveling around Europe all year and is now being exhibited in Montolieu Village du Livre, Aude, France. The exhibition has been organized in association with IBBY UK and IBBY France where it will be on view as part of the annual European Children’s Literature Festival in the village. The festival includes many events with talks from various artists, and representatives from IBBY France and UK will talk about the collection and the project. There was also a presentation of wordless books created by the children of Montolieu for the children living on Lampedusa.

World Libraries: How might someone unfamiliar with IBBY – or service to children in crisis – get involved? And for someone who’s already involved and wants to try out a new solution or program, how can IBBY and its membership help?

Wally De Doncker: The first step is to become a member of IBBY; many IBBY sections need volunteers to run their programs. Ideally all professional groups should be involved: researchers, reading promoters, authors, illustrators, teachers, booksellers and publishers, etc. Working together can achieve a lot and working with refugees will become an increasingly important task for community libraries in the future.

Liz Page: IBBY members have the same mission and, as such, the IBBY Sections are ideally placed to organize projects and events designed to ease the solution of children arriving in new environments. The international IBBY network allows for exchanges of experiences and expertise that can be harnessed to work with all children and under all circumstances.

About the Interviewees

Wally De Doncker, a native of Belgium, is serving his second term as IBBY president. He trained as a teacher and served as a special teacher of children’s literature. He began writing full-time in 2001 and since then, his books have reached readers in more than thirteen countries in Europe and beyond. He is a frequent contributor to publications that deal with the international dimension of children’s literature, and is a regular guest in libraries, schools and other settings where children and adults come to enjoy his readings.

Liz Page, executive director of IBBY, grew up and lived in England until 1985 when she and her family moved to Basel. She soon became involved with JuKiBu, the Intercultural Children’s Library in Basel, of which she was a founding member. Later she was elected President of the Intercultural Children’s Libraries Association of Switzerland.

Hasmig Chahinian, from France, was born and grew up in Lebanon. She is currently in charge of children’s literature from the Arab world at the international division of the French National Centre for Children’s Literature – Centre national de la literature pour la jeunesse: La Joie par les livres – a service of the French National Library. She served as a member of the IBBY Executive Committee for two terms from 2010 to 2014 – from 2012 as vice president.