Library department to distribute 30,000 storybooks to children in remote areas

AMMAN — The National Library Department (NLD) is distributing short story collections to children in remote and underprivileged areas across the Kingdom, its director general, Mohammad Abbadi, said Saturday.

The NLD, in cooperation with its partners, will distribute about 30,000 short stories to children of different age groups across the country this year, Abbadi added.

The campaign, dubbed “Your Friend”, is conducted in partnership with the Jordanian Publishers Union, Jordan Library and Information Association and other local and Arab stakeholders, he noted.

“The campaign is having a positive impact on local communities, especially remote areas and villages that lack libraries. Even if there is a library in some of these areas, it usually does not have many books and most of them are old and not in a good shape,” Abbadi said.

“In addition, many families are unable to buy short story collections for their children, especially in underprivileged areas. Therefore, giving these books to children for free is helping a lot…The whole purpose of the campaign is to fill their time with something informative and useful, and encourage reading because unfortunately not many people read,” he added.

According to Abbadi, the campaign was first launched in 2012. “In this campaign, we also rely a lot on donations. In the upcoming period, we will be cooperating with schools and other local NGOs to increase the outreach of the campaign and benefit more children to draw smiles on their faces.”