Biennial Reports

Every two year IBBY requests from all national sections to prepare their biennial reports according to a standard format All reports are combined in one report which is distributed in the biennial IBBY Congress, and is posted with each national section report on www.ibby.org

Below is the the PBBY biennial report for 2010-2012

INFORMATION REQUESTED FOR THE NS BIENNIAL REPORTS
Reporting period: 2010-2012
1. GENERAL INFORMATION
1.1 Country: Palestine
1.2 Name of the National Section (NS): Palestine National Section of IBBY (PBBY)
1.2.1. Address, telephone, fax, e-mail, website, Facebook:
c/o Ma’an Development Centre
Ramallah, Palestine
Telephone 2722-2954451; Fax 272-2-2950755
E-Mail jehanna@gmail.com; mary.fasheh@yahoo.com
1.3 Representatives
1.3.1 President of the National Section (NS): Jehan Helou
1.3.2 Secretary or main executive officer of the NS: Mary Fasheh (Vice President)
1.3.3 IBBY main Liaison Officer or contact person: Jehan Helou
1.4 Organization
Structure
1.4.1 How is your NS organized? Describe the structure of the NS in general. The Palestine National Section has senem Administrative Committee Members; President/Liaison Officer; Vice President, 5 Members: Afaf Harb, Arham Damen, Olivia Qandah, Tayseer Maddah is replaced by Ahmad Heneiti, and Advisor: Dr. Sharif Kanaana
1.4.2 Is your NS affiliated to, or a branch of another organization or institution? If so, which one? Our NS is not affiliated to any organization.
1.4.3 Do you have an office and paid staff? We are hosted by Ma’an Development Centre. We also use the places of Tamer Institute for Community Education, and Dar al-Shoroq Bookshop and Cultural Centre. Our staff is not paid.
1.4.4 How often do you have business meetings? It varies, from once every two weeks to once every two months.
Governance
1.4.5. Describe your national sections governance structure. The Palestine NS consists of the Administrative Committee (7 members) and a general assembly.
1.4.6 List your officers and their term of office. Please see 1.4.1 above. We have by-laws but they are not active. The founding members are still in the Admin. Committee but new members are allowed to join whenever there is a need for it.
1.4.7 How are your officers selected? Are they elected by your members? By ballot? At a General Assembly? By our members at a general meeting.
Membership
1.4.8 Does your NS have organizations as members? How many? What kind of organizations? Yes. The ministries of Culture and Education, Tamer Institute for Community Education, Bireh Public Library, UNRWA, and Diakonia. However, some of these members are not very active.
1.4.9 Does your NS have individual members? How many? How do they contribute to the NS activities? Yes. We have around 50 individual members but only 20 are active members by participation in meetings and discussions and payment of their dues. Unfortunately, it is difficult to have active members from outside Ramallah and Jerusalem because of closures and checkpoints, and active members from Gaza cannot reach us at all.
1.4.10 Describe the make up of your membership? More specifically: who are your members? What percentage are: teachers? authors? illustrators? publishers? students? etc. Mainly librarians, writers, education experts, in addition to teachers, illustrators, publishers, and parents.
1.4.11 What categories of membership, if any, does your NS have? Individuals and organizations.
1.4.12 How inclusive is your membership of persons connected to the children’s book world in your country? Writers, readers, librarians. We are trying to attract university students interested in children’s literature.
1.4.13 If not inclusive, describe your plans to make it more inclusive?
1.4.14 Do you make any special effort to attract young people? Yes by inviting them to report on their research work related to children’s literature.
1.4.15 How often do you keep in touch with your members? How? Weekly, through telephone calls, e-mails, and facebook, and we are circulating articles and news related to children books. We try to keep our monthly meetings.
2. FUNDING
2.1 Annual Budget
2.1.1 What is your average annual budget in US$? Is it increasing or decreasing?
Around $500 from membership and minor donations. Unfortunately it is decreasing. We are taking a small loan to support salaries in Gaza. However, we have a budget for the project of “Children in Crisis situations” in Gaza.
2.2 Sources of income
2.2.1 Is there a membership fee? How much is it? What percentage of your budget does this account for? Yes. $25.00 per person for annual membership. It is 80%.
2.2.2 Do you receive financial support from individual sponsors and/or donors? If so, how much? What percentage of your budget does this account for? Yes, very limited from individuals and from Publisher Kalimat around 20%.
2.2.3 Do you receive grants from your government? If so, how much? What percentage of your budget does this account for? No.
2.2.4 Do you receive grants from national institutions or other organizations? If so, how much? What percentage of your budget does this account for? No.
2.2.5 Have other NS contributed any financial support? If so, how much? Yes USBBY pays our membership.
2.2.6 Do you generate income through publications? If so, how much? What percentage of your budget does this account for? NO.
2.2.7 Do you have other sources of income not mentioned above? What are they? What percentage of your budget does this account for? NO.
2.2.8 Are the sources of income listed in points 2.2.1 to 2.2.7 regular contributions? No.
2.2.9 Do you receive support specifically for your IBBY dues? If so, from whom? Yes. USBBY paid our dues since 2008.
2.2.10 Describe successful fundraising strategies your NS has developed. Unfortunately, we have not developed fundraising strategies. However, because of the traumatic ongoing situation in Gaza, Children in Crisis project has been getting support since 2007 from IBBY and their committed donors.
3. THE NATIONAL SECTION´S ACTIVITIES
3.1 Main activities
3.1.1 Has your NS organized national, regional or international meetings and conferences? Which ones? We have regional cooperation through our Executive member.
3.1.2 Have members of your NS represented IBBY at other national, regional or international meetings and/or conferences? Yes, our President.
3.1.3 Does your NS organize courses or seminars at a local level? Who are these aimed at? No.
3.1.4 Does your NS organize or host exhibitions and/or fairs? No.
3.1.5 Does your NS administer awards or prizes? Does it organize contests? No.
3.1.6 Does your NS run a library or bookstore? No.
3.1.7 Has your NS organized other activities? Which ones have been especially successful in your country? Please specify. Lecture meetings by local and foreign writers and book discussions.
3.2 Communication
3.2.1 Does your NS have a website? What is its URL? No.
3.2.2 Does your NS publish a regular newsletter? Who receives this? Is it available online? Occasionally. in the Asian Newsletter, IBBY website, and our facebook. It is circulated to our members.
3.2.3 Does your NS have a Facebook page? What is its name? Yes. IBBY PAL.
3.2.4 Does your NS develop lists of book selections? Which ones? Yes. Once on Recommended Best books for reading..
3.2.5 What, if any, are your other regular publications? Please give names (original and translation into English) and a description of their content and purpose. No other publications.
3.2.6 Does your NS work with national media to promote your own activities or the work of IBBY? . We used JADAL Youth for video filming once during a lecture, and on very important and special occasions we use the local media to announce, for example, nominees for Honour Lists.
3.3 Cooperation at a national level
3.3.1 Is your NS consulted about children’s books in your country? By whom? Yes, by Tamer Institute and writers.
3.3.2 Are there NGOs or established institutions in your country for which the development of a children’s reading and publishing culture is an objective? Which ones? Are you informed of their projects and needs? Mainly, Tamer Institute for Community Education. Also, Child’s Cultural Centre in Acre and Children’s Resource Centre in Jerusalem. Yes.
3.3.3 Does your NS collaborate with these agencies? Yes. We study their publications and select the best books for recommendation to IBBY’s Honour List.
4. COOPERATION WITH IBBY
4.1 International activities in cooperation with IBBY
Congresses and General Assemblies
4.1.1 How many of your members participated in the last two IBBY Congresses and General Assemblies? Two in Spain and four in Copenhagen.
4.1.2 Does your NS participate in IBBY regional conferences? If so, which ones? If not, what are the barriers to your participation? No.
International Children’s Book Day (ICBD)
4.1.3 What activities, if any, does your NS organize to celebrate the ICBD? PBBY participates in the annual national reading week organized by Tamer Institute April 1-7 which coincides with International Books Day and Palestine Children’s Day. Activities include reading, drama, book reviews, storytelling, art, and drawings.
4.1.4 Did you design your own poster? If not, did you use the message and poster of the sponsoring NS? We used Tamer Institute’s poster and IBBY’s poster. We disseminated the messages among our members and posted them in our facebook.
4.1.5 How do you disseminate information about the ICBD? Through local media, the brochure we published, and during the reading campaign.
IBBY Awards and projects
4.1.6 Did your NS present any nominations for the Hans Christian Andersen Awards? If so, who were the nominees? If not, why not? No, because we did not think that anyone deserves this award yet.
4.1.7 Did your NS present any nominations for the IBBY Honour List? If so, who were the nominees? If not, why not? Yes. The nominees are: Ahlam Bsharat as author; Dima abu al-Hajj as illustrator, and Zakieh Khairhoum as translator.
4.1.8 Did your NS nominate a project for the IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award? If so, which one? Not recently, but we have nominated Tamer Institute in 2004 and 2006.
4.1.9 Did your section submit an application for funds from the IBBY-Yamada programme? If not, why not? If yes, what was it and was the application successful? Yes for a workshop arranged for Palestinian children in Lebanon.
4.1.10 Did you submit any titles for the Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities selection? No. There were no published books on this subject.
4.1.11 Did you donate or recommend any books for the IBBY Documentation Centre of Books for Disabled Young People? If so, how many? No.
4.1.12 Did you host any IBBY travelling exhibitions (Honour List, HCA, Books for Disabled, etc.)? If so, where and when were they exhibited? No.
Bookbird and other projects
4.1.13 How many members of your NS have individual subscriptions to Bookbird? None.
4.1.14 Does your NS have a Bookbird associate editor? Have you contributed any articles to, or cooperated with Bookbird? No. Our president had one article published in Bookbird.
4.1.15 Have you participated in any other IBBY international activities not listed above? If so, which ones? Our President participated in USBBY regional conference.
4.2 Cooperation with other National Sections
4.2.1 Are you involved in regional cooperation with other NS? What is the nature of this cooperation? Yes, we cooperated with Lebanon, Tunis, Kuwait and UAEBBY.
4.2.2 Do you cooperate bilaterally with other NS? What is the nature of this cooperation? Yes, twinning with USBBY and in their newsletter. Also in the Asian Newsletter.
4.2.3 Do you exchange newsletters or information with other NS? If so, how often? Yes, with Asia NSs and facebook..
4.2.4 What, in your opinion, have been the major obstacles to greater cooperation between NS? With reference to PBBY, the occupation restricts our travelling and, therefore, participation in conferences. Also, intensive work of members in their own jobs, and the permanent emergency situation in Palestine.
5. ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
None