Poster campaign to encourage reading in Pakistan

The current situation in Pakistan is tragic. Following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto hardly a day goes by without more violence. Although the situation is serous it is not hopeless. There is a lot of propaganda manipulating the very young and inciting them to hatred.

The Pakistani IBBY Section, which is based at the Alif Laila Book Bus Society in Lahore, has decided to initiate a poster campaign in an attempt to counteract the daily subjection of the children to this propaganda of images of terrorism, destruction and despair. Their aim is to encourage reading and school attendance, cut the drop-out rate and allow the next generation to move forward out of the current cycle of destruction.

The organization is putting every effort into a nationwide poster campaign that will bring children and books together with information, knowledge, and awareness of peace and tolerance towards each other: issues that are often neglected in their lives today.

The posters will be set up in public places where children will be able to see different images of reading that will show how reading can be a happy and fulfilling pastime. The designs will be simple and the slogan will be in Urdu and the local regional language. Local images will be used to help families identify with them.

Initially there will be five designs with a print run of 5,000 copies of each design in English and in Urdu. Alif Laila has a network of people across the country that will join the campaign and cover as many cities as they can.

IBBY Pakistan believes that with these methods they can begin to stop what they see as brain washing of the young by the virulent campaign of violence they see around them every day.

One of the basic aims of IBBY says that books can encourage international understanding, IBBY Pakistan is working to encourage this aim at a national level.

IBBY Pakistan gratefully acknowledges the support given by the IBBY Foundation for this project.