IBBY Ireland Conference

In December 2003, the president of IBBY Palestine and the General Director of Tamer Institute Jehan Helou was invited to Ireland to take part in IBBY Ireland conference: Fighting for Writing …Children’s Books in Areas of Conflict.

The aim of the conference was to give International and local speakers the chance to give personal experience of bringing books and stories to children in conflict situations. It is believed that by exploring the value and impact of these experiences, that an environment of mutual understanding and respect for differing cultures could be fostered and nurtured. The opening speaker of the conference was Mary Robinson, Executive Director of Ethical Global Initiative and former president of Ireland.

Helou gave a presentation on the difficult and traumatic lives of Palestinian children because of the Israeli occupation and oppression and of the difficulties and challenges facing them in providing books for children everywhere, and an overview on the severe disruption of education due to continuous aggressions, curfews and closures.

Helou also visited the prestigious O’Brien Press who were kind to give the Institute the right to translate and publish the book of Under the Hawthorne Tree, and was interviewed by one radio stations about the situation of Palestinian children.