CHILDREN’S BOOKS FOR RECONSTRUCTION
Rebuilding life after the earthquakes
A project to help the central Italian region of Abruzzo

On April 6, 2009, in the middle of the night, an earthquake hit the central Italian region of Abruzzo. The majority of the damage occurred in the medieval city of L’Aquila (capital city of the Abruzzo region) and the 26 surrounding villages. L’Aquila and most of the villages were almost totally erased. In the earthquake 397 people died, including more than 20 children, and thousands were critically injured. The earthquake left more than 70,000 people without homes. Right now most of the people are being housed in temporary camps.

IBBY Italia, the Italian section of the International Board on Books for Young People, is promoting a project to help Abruzzo rebuild its life and future.

The project aims to realize two different levels of experience. The first level is organizing professional volunteers who specialize in children’s books and boardgames to hold readings, workshops, and meetings for children and families affected by the earthquake.  Following the immediate emergency, the project is collecting books from publishers in order to build a youth library in the area hit by the eartquake.  During the reconstruction IBBY is working with a local committee to promote a calendar of events, readings, and game sessions, bringing a public Bibliobus, a mobile library, to the area where people are now living in five main tent camps.

The project plans to be present in the area during the long period of reconstruction, and to organize meetings with authors, illustrators and specialists during the coming years in schools. The goal is to help the local community to rebuild its structure, energy, and hope in order to reinvent its future.  In order to make all this happen, IBBY Italia*, with the support of the Minister of Cultural and Artistic Heritage  and in collaboration with the local committee calls for the help of all of those who wants to contribute to this project.

Donations should be sent to:
Ibby Italia, purpose: Abruzzo Project – IBAN IT 46 Q 01030 02400 000004685403

Any proposal for fundraising for the Abruzzo Project would be more than welcome.

Contact: IBBY Italy National Secretariat – Marcella Terrusi
ibby@ibbyitalia.it
www.ibbyitalia.it

* Italian Publisher Association, Association of Italian Librarians, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, University of Bologna and the main associations and cultural subject active in the promotion of reading in Italy