IBBY-Yamada Fund

The Child’s Right to Become a Reader

In 2005, IBBY launched a campaign to draw attention to the right of every child to become a reader. With the generous financial contribution of the Yamada Bee Farm, which had funded several IBBY projects in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, the IBBY-Yamada Fund was established to provide grants for IBBY projects that help develop a book culture for children in all regions of the world. Each year around ten projects are selected by the Executive Committee among those presented by IBBY Members. Each approved project receives USD 5,000, and most projects have matching funding from other sources.

The range of Yamada projects is enormous, depending on the needs of the community. They span from reading promotion programmes, establishing libraries in schools and community centres, training teachers and parents in maintaining libraries and storytelling as well as workshops for writers, illustrators and editors of children's books.

IBBY-Yamada Fund Projects by Type

The range of Yamada projects is enormous, depending on the needs of the community. All of the projects aim to promote a reading culture, some of them with an emphasis on storytelling. Others involve creating books, these can be storybooks, wordless books or writing down folktales of a community.

Some projects have focused on books for pre-school children or books and projects especially for young adults. Others have been directed at selected groups of children: school classes, children with special needs, children in marginal communities and children in rural or remote communities, children who are refugees, vulnerable children and children in hospitals. To reach children in remote or poor communities mini libraries have been created on motorbikes and camels or in crates in restaurants.

Some projects aim to involve parents, specifically mothers, in encouraging reading. There have been many projects and workshops for reading promotion aimed at teachers and librarians. These are often done as part of the establishment of libraries in schools and community centres. Many projects and workshops aim to encourage local authors, illustrators and translators in creating quality books for children. There have been projects to bring together academics in the field of children’s literature, as well as projects that seek to shape government policy on reading.

Reading promotion activities can take place inside - in schools, libraries and community centres, but they can also be held outside - on street corners, in public parks, in gardens, at summer camps and by the sea. Most recently, due to restrictions related to covid-19, many projects have been held online.

Project Type		Project Example
Reading promotion through	Storytelling	Argentina 2019
	Storybooks	Zimbabwe 2022	South Africa 2020
	Wordless books	Nepal 2020
	Folktales	Nepal 2019	Nepal 2018
Reading promotion with	Libraries	Peru 2022	Dominican Republic 2021
		Bolivia 2020	Rwanda 2019
		Zimbabwe 2018	India 2015
	Online	Costa Rica 2020	Lebanon 2020
Target audience: children	Pre-school children	Sri Lanka 2020	Peru 2016
	Young adults	Armenia 2021	Mexico 2018
		Afghanistan 2017
	School classes	Zimbabwe 2019
	Special needs	Lebanon 2020	France 2013
	Marginal communities	Afghanistan 2019	Zimbabwe 2018
	Remote or rural communities	Pakistan 2022	Armenia 2020
		Bolivia 2020	Armenia 2019
		Indonesia 2018	Mongolia 2015
	Refugees	France 2022	New Zealand 2018
		Italy 2017	Haiti 2016
	Vulnerable children	Malaysia 2022	El Salvador 2020
	Children in hospitals	Argentina 2020
Target audience: adults	Parents	India 2019	Peru 2019
	Teachers and librarians	Cameroon 2022	Cuba 2022
		Lebanon 2022	Ghana 2021
		Peru 2019	India 2019
	Authors, illustrators, translators	Cuba 2022	Afghanistan 2019
		Armenia 2015	Zambia 2015
	Academics	Cuba 2019
	Government	Mongolia 2022 / 2016	South Africa 2016
Special themes	Environment	Ukraine 2021
	Gender	Costa Rica 2020
	Covid	Mongolia 2022	Nepal 2021
Special locations	Street corners	Bolivia 2014
	Public parks	Ecuador 2012
	Gardens	Peru 2017
	Summer camps	Armenia 2022	Uganda 2019
	Seaside	Peru 2020
	Restaurants	Peru 2022

IBBY-Yamada Fund Projects 2024

IBBY Canada
Building a Reading Culture in Indigenous Communities: From Sea to Sea to Sea
Project aiming at creating appreciation and access to high quality Indigenous picture books in Indigenous communities across the country; a curated list of the finest picture books by First Nations, Métis and Inuit writers will be at the centre of the initiative.

IBBY Dominican Republic
Lleva un libro en la maleta (Roundtrip Book Exchange project)
Dual peace education project based on training and book exchange between the communities of two vulnerable neighbourhoods, Capotillo in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and Tetuán, Madrid (Spain).

IBBY Egypt
Capacity Building in Basic Library Management and Reading Promotion Skills in Al Asmarat, New Cairo
Pilot reading promotion project aimed at improving literacy levels and critical thinking among displaced and/or impoverished children; it includes the training of teachers, co-ordinators & parents.

IBBY Indonesia
The Magic of Reading in the Hands of Young People – Let Them Shine
Project centred on the concepts of peace, tolerance and inclusion through the creation of books for schools with Disabilities.

IBBY Lebanon
Library for Refugees
Establishment of a library at the Tahaddi teaching centre for refugees and providing library training to the teachers.

IBBY Malaysia
Bibliotherapy for Undocumented Children in East Malaysia: A Training for Trainers
A continuation of the IBBY Malaysia Yamada project in 2022, this new initiative focuses on the training of teachers and volunteers to conduct a bibliotherapy sessions with undocumented children.

IBBY Peru
Leer en familia (Reading in family)
Technical assistance to Los Olivos Municipality to implement a family support program that ensures the improvement of their parenting competencies through reading practices and book-centred activities.

IBBY Uganda
Developing Creative Writing Interest and Skills Among Children in Vulnerable Communities
To impart skills and promote composing and production of reading materials for children by children; To produce as many books as possible to help in the promotion and development of a reading habit among children, the youth and adults.

IBBY Venezuela
San Mateo Reads More and Better
Implementation of reading promotion actions in partnership with the Kunst Zonder Grenzen Foundation to make reading a permanent habit among children aged 7–14 in communities of San Matero, Anzoátegui State.

IBBY Zimbabwe
Empowering new authors for young people and children’s literature
Workshops and training sessions aiming at empowering authors nation-wide and promoting the creation of children’s contents with the involvement of publishers.

IBBY-Yamada Fund Projects 2023

IBBY-Yamada Fund Projects 2022

IBBY-Yamada Fund Projects 2021

Information about the IBBY-Yamada projects from 2006 to 2020 can be found in the Archives.