In a bid to deepen the love of reading and storytelling amongst the students of Sharjah’s public and private schools and heighten students’ awareness on the importance of cultivating the reading habit as a lifelong practice, the Sharjah World Book Capital 2019 office has launched ‘Book Friendly Schools’ campaign, a two-month sociocultural campaign targeting 30 schools across the Emirate.

The campaign was launched yesterday (Wednesday) — in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MoE), Sharjah Education Council (SEC) and Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA) — at the Um Roman Girls School for Basic Education with a mini book fair; workshops on art, craft and culture;  interactive reading sessions and a distribution of 50 books. The same activities will be organised in all other participating schools and the campaign will last for two days in each school.

Marwa Al Aqroubi, Project Manager of SWBC 2019, said: “The ‘Book Friendly Schools’ campaign is founded on one of the key pillars of SWBC’s year-long celebration programme –promoting books as the essential source of knowledge. Through this campaign, SWBC seeks to reinforce the intellectual skills of the young generation and help them form a lifelong attachment to the practice of reading, which will enable them to continue enriching their lives with knowledge and be influential agents of positive change in their communities.”

The World Book Capital’s international committee at UNESCO named Sharjah the World Book Capital 2019 in appreciation of its vital role in supporting books and promoting reading. The year-long celebration programme was inaugurated on 23 April 2019. Since 2001, the committee, which comprises representatives from the International Publishers Association (IPA) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), receives and evaluates entries submitted by cities to select the World Book Capital City for a one-year period.