팻시 알다나(Patsy Aldana) IBBY 회장의 서신입니다. 

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Dear IBBY Friends,

Sadly this is my last president’s letter to you. Of course many of us will be seeing each
other in Santiago de Compostela at the 32nd IBBY Congress; something I look forward to
very much. I was in Compostela about a month and a half ago—along with thousands of
pilgrims—and I can assure you that it will be a wonderful congress. The work of María
Jesus Gil the OEPLI president, Henrike Fesefeldt the Congress chairperson and the local
congress committee has been outstanding.

It’s been a very busy time since I last wrote and I will try to be brief.

Perhaps the most important event that has shown why IBBY is so important and can
really make a difference was January's earthquake and the subsequent destruction in
Haiti. Just before that happened and shortly afterwards there also were terrible
earthquakes in Padang, Indonesia and in Chile.

The response of our sections to these disasters was exceptional. In all three countries
our NS responded both quickly and with great competence, despite personal tragedy and
loss, in particular in Haiti. It’s hard to believe that in the space of a few weeks people
could begin to organise a response that was so wide-ranging and effective. Reports from
Haiti, Indonesia and Chile are on our website. It’s worth noting that not one of these
sections receives any money from its government.

Of course, this is not to advocate poverty or volunteer work, but a reminder to all of us
that what IBBY really has to offer is the passion that we bring to our work and the
importance of our purpose.

I also want to take this opportunity to warmly thank you all for the generous outpouring of
help. To think that Iraq where we do not even yet have a section, Palestine, and others
whose own situations are incredibly difficult, responded so quickly and with such
generosity. The IBBY sections in Canada, China, Korea, Sweden and the US were
particularly generous, as were individuals from around the world. At times like these we
know that IBBY is truly an international family.

The outstanding work undertaken by our sections in response to the crises that have
taken place during my presidency has truly reinforced my belief that the stronger our
sections are, the better our work all over the world on behalf of children can be. In my
travels I have not come across any other organisation that does so much with so little.
The reason of course is your terrific motivation and commitment to the IBBY mission and
aims. Outsiders are always surprised to learn how much of our work is done by
volunteers, and how far we are able to stretch our resources.

But ultimately it is not acceptable that such good work does not earn financial support. I
promise, as I finish my term of office that I will do everything I can to find the resources
that will further our work, allowing IBBY not only able to react fast, competently and
usefully, but also to help you in your continuing task to bring the right to read to every
child everywhere.

We can see the value of having resources when we look at the impact of our new funding
from Nami Island Inc. for the Andersen Award. For the first time we were able to mount a
publicity campaign to promote the Award and the winners. The Bologna Book Fair
supported us as well by helping us to hang giant signs at the entrance of the 2010 Book
Fair, thus reaching children’s publishers from the whole world. With your help, publicist
Susan Raab did a great job of getting media and attention for the winners. This is
something we can and will do even better next time.

In my search for resources I recently met with the director of the Education Sector of the
World Bank in Washington, D.C.. While it was a somewhat dispiriting meeting, the
director promised to circulate a letter to their clients who are the governments of the
countries they deal with. This letter is a brief introduction to IBBY aimed at governments
and it lists the kind of things that IBBY can do to help them in reading promotion, support
for local publishing, etc. A copy of this document is attached; please feel free to send it
to your ministries of education and culture and anyone else where it could be beneficial
to your work. I hope it will be useful.

Our international partnerships have in many cases been very helpful. IFLA has once
again nominated IBBY for the ALMA, accompanied by letters of support from former
winners Carmen Diana Dearden and Katherine Paterson. We hope you are involving
local IFLA members in your sections and taking advantage of this relationship. We have
had representatives at the last IFLA Congresses, and Liz Page will attend the IFLA world
congress in Sweden this year and will discuss further how to work better together.

IRA has been re-organising itself following the departure of their long-standing director.
Ellis Vance is now on the International Committee of IRA and he is working towards
ensuring that we can do meaningful work with IRA. IBBY representatives have also been
invited to IRA’s world conferences and this year a member of the IBBY New Zealand
board represented IBBY in Auckland.

CODE is not only working with IBBY Canada on various publishing and writing projects in
Africa, but they are also working with our Haitian section on furthering the presence of
Creole books in Haiti.

I have travelled a great deal since I last wrote to you – something that is always a very
enriching experience.

I spent almost a month in Asia leading up to last September's EC meeting in Kuala
Lumpur. The meeting was very kindly hosted by Malaysian IBBY and their Vice
President Redza Ahmad Khairuddin. Redza is currently one of the IBBY Vice Presidents
and is the candidate for IBBY Presidency 2010-2012. We had a great time in KL meeting
with members of the section, local publishers and having a guided tour of the National
Library by Shahaneem Hanoum, former VP of IBBY and current president of MBBY.
Before the meeting in KL, I participated in an IBBY-Yamada workshop organised by IBBY
Indonesia and the indefatigable Murti Bunanta. It was fascinating being in both these
countries during Ramadan. It was immediately obvious that these large and
predominately Muslim nations are very diverse and rich in the ways in which Ramadan is
observed. Breaking fast in Kuala Lumpur each day is done with banquets of over 1,000
people with delicious food and much joy to which we were welcomed with open arms.
There are substantial non-Muslim minorities in these countries as well and it was very
heartening to see the respect accorded to this diversity, and the feeling of comfortable
tolerance of difference – a model perhaps for all of us.

Before travelling to these two Southeast Asian countries, I visited China and colleagues
at CBBY in Beijing. One of my most surprising and perhaps most exciting visits was to
the Shenzen school district in South China with CBBY president Hai Fei and Mingzhou
Zhang, our EC member. The schools in Shenzen are among the most reading friendly I
have ever seen anywhere. They are mandated to spend 7% of their budgets on reading
promotion. The Director of Education of the school system, which provides services for a
population of 15 million people, insists on free reading for pleasure, no testing on
reading, classroom book clubs and book sharing, and the schools are overflowing with
books. The quality and variety of publishing in China is certainly growing day by day. It
was so heartening to see a school system that was almost like an IBBY dream.

Before going to China I was in Japan where I was wonderfully hosted by JBBY. Earlier
last year I was lucky enough to have spent time with her Majesty Empress Michiko when
she and the Emperor visited Canada and was delighted to see her again in Japan. We
are so lucky to have such a warm, generous and knowledgeable Honorary Patron in her.

Later on in 2009 I attended regional congresses in the USA and Cuba—both very
interesting. Our Cuban section continues to thrive despite great odds, and can always
produce a surprising and outstanding congress. The organizers of the 8th USBBY
regional IBBY congress went out of their way to make sure this regional congress was
truly international with participants coming from Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean ,
Africa, Asia and Australia.

IBBY Mexico/A Leer hosted the first of what is hoped to be biennial regional meetings of
IBBY sections. The Minister of Education attended and everyone was very inspired. In
Latin America there is a big gap between the large institutional sections with paid staff
and the smaller, volunteer-led sections and it is particularly helpful for all to learn what
the other is doing. The exchanges between sections on all aspects of their work was very
fruitful. The meeting also offers many opportunities for solidarity between the members
and for working together. It is a good model for other regions.

My attendance at SM Foundation CEDILIJ conference of children’s literature in Santiago
de Chile in February this year ended with the huge Chilean earthquake. Together with
several Andersen winners and IBBY friends from Latin America I was shaken and
shocked by the power of the earthquake. The members of Chile IBBY were quick to give
us support and took us away from the destruction for a day of respite, for which I shall be
always grateful. The congress centre where the meeting took place was badly damaged
and had pretty much collapsed; we felt very lucky that we were not in there at the time.
But everyone was safe and SM was very generous with their hospitality as we all waited
to find a way to get home. This experience, coming only hours after I had presented the
work of our Haitian section, brought home to us just how fragile we are and how
interdependent. We spent many hours huddled close together on the hotel lobby sofas
keeping each other company and being grateful to be in a good building with food and
water, while others close by had lost everything.

After the Bologna Book Fair I travelled to Paris to meet Bruno Racine President of the
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, which has recently taken on the responsibility for our
NS in France. He and the staff of La Joie par le livres were very welcoming. We have
high hopes for the French section now that the institutional situation is formalised.

As I come to the end of a fascinating and rich four years as IBBY President, I am more
and more convinced that IBBY can make a difference for children in this world. We are
very small but we have a very good cause. We are much stronger than we think when
we are well organised, open, cohesive and representative. Money is essential and I will
work to find more resources for IBBY. But money is really not the most important thing.
The most important thing is that together with our passion and energy and commitment
we can give children a chance to become readers, to know themselves and others, able
to build bridges between us and to become active, empowered people in the world.



Patsy Aldana
President, International Board on Books for Young People