IBBY-Yamada 2021: Sri Lanka

IBBY Sri Lanka: Let’s make books and reading fun! - series of workshops on illustrating, storytelling techniques, bibliotherapy and mentoring.

To develop a reading culture in Sri Lanka, books and reading need to be enjoyable experiences for children and youth. This project seeks to connect storybooks with animated story-telling activities such as puppetry and dramatization to create an element of fun as well as, when combined with bibliotherapy, a source of healing. It also seeks to improve the quality of illustrated books in Sri Lanka. The project has two phases, beginning with the training of 35 local stakeholders (resource persons) by foreign experts and then the further training of 80 preschool teachers by the local resource persons. The first phase envisioned two groups: 20 education and library sector professionals were to be trained by professionals from India and the second group of 15 professional illustrators were to be trained in international best practices, standards and techniques in illustrating picture books and chapter books with a trainer from Malaysia. Due to the pandemic-related lockdowns and ban of foreign travel, the workshops were postponed. The aim is to complete the dramatization and puppetry workshops by Zoom in early 2022. The illustration workshop cannot be done online, so it has been postponed to a later date.