IBBY-Asahi 2020 Winner

4 May 2020

Ahmad Redza Khairuddin, Chair of the IBBY Reading Promotion Jury of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) announces the winner of the 2020 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award. IBBY is very grateful to the continuing support and sponsorship of the Asahi Shimbun Media Group from Japan.

The 2020 winner is:

Casa Cuna Cuenteros of Buenos Aires, Argentina

The unanimous choice of the jury for the IBBY-Asahi Award 2020 is a group of passionate volunteers who carry out reading and storytelling activities in a children’s hospital in Buenos Aires. The city also houses many vulnerable inhabitants, often poor and many who have had to drop out of school. Books and stories are often viewed as additional work and only for learning of things – only the privileged were able to have books.

This group began to make storybooks available to many children and families, and regular storytelling sessions were held in various areas of the hospital. The stories that they told were fun and inspired the children and adults alike. Soon enough, a change in attitude was noticed and they saw many were enjoying reading and listening to stories. Active participation increased at all levels amongst people coming to the hospital, including the staff. Soon enough they had a collection of books to read from and then even a small library at the hospital. The group has become known for their hard work and successes. They have been invited to provide training and workshops for volunteers as well as provide advice for the setting up of similar programmes in other hospitals. The project has seen many heartwarming successes and has touched the lives of many children, teenagers, parents, families and caregivers. It has also inspired many others to emulate it in other parts of the city and at other hospitals.

The 2020 Jury members in alphabetical order by country are: 
Nora Lía Sormani from Argentina, Ahmad Redza Khairuddin from Malaysia/Chair, Basarat Kazim from Pakistan, Anastasia Arkhipova from Russia, Carole Bloch from South Africa, and Sophie Hallam from the United Kingdom.

All the nominees were excellent; each one able to reach out to children and parents as well as communities, enriching their lives. All of them deserve our congratulations for their excellent projects and impact on the lives of the children. This year the IBBY National Sections submitted a record 25 nominations. Please go to the IBBY website, www.ibbyorg, to read about all the nominees for the 2020 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award.

Casa Cuna Cuenteros will receive prize money of USD 10,000.  

The other nominated projects for the 2020 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award were:
Read and Create, Yerevan, Armenia; Fairy Tale Craftmaster, Baku, Azerbaijan; Hoopoe Books – ISHK, Afghanistan; Travelling Libraries: Entonces el libro, Cordoba, Argentina; Lleva un libro en la maleta, San Cristóbel, Dominican Rep; Biblioteca Infantil y Juvenil de la República Dominicana, Santo Domingo, Dominican Rep; Association Encrages, France: Network for Children’s Rights, Greece; Parag’s Multi-state Library Project, India; Bamdad Libraries and Reading Promotion, Iran; Giufa’ Library, Palermo, Sicily, Italy; Proyecto Ja’ab, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico; Step onto the red carpet! (Stap op de rode loper!), across four cities, Netherlands; Stranitsa (The Page), Novosibirsk, Russia; Phendulani Literacy Quiz, South Africa; Book Dash, South Africa; Abhimana Mobile Library Project, Puthukkudiruppu and Siyambalanduwa, Sri Lanka; Room to Read Regional Development Project, Polonnaruwa District, Sri Lanka; Ion Creanga National Children’s Library–Let’s read together, Moldova; Bütün Çocuklar BZM Derne–Connecting Power of the Book Tree, Turkey; TEGV – Education Volunteers–I Read, I Play, Turkey; Kherson Oblast Library–Dream! Read! Achieve! Kherson region, Ukraine; Coram Beanstalk–Reading 321, UK; Cuentos del Escarabajo AC, El Calvario Barrio, Caracas, Venezuela. 

The media release can be downloaded as a pdf here.