As part of the Sharjah delegation, Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, President of the International Publishers Association (IPA) and Founder and Honorary President of the UAE Board on Books for Young People (UAEBBY), attended the launch of the 14th edition of the Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature at the London Book Fair (LBF) 2022. The Etisalat Award is organized by UAEBBY – a non-profit, non-governmental organization – and has been honouring children’s literature in Arabic since 2009.
Along with Sheikha Bodour, the launch was attended by Sheikh Fahim Al Qasimi, Executive Chairman of the Department of Government Relations (DGR) in Sharjah and head of the Sharjah delegation at the book fair; Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, Chairman of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA); and Marwa Al Aqroubi, President of UAEBBY.
The awards have made use of the latest technologies to ensure easy registration and application processing, with new updates to the platform enabling the control of entries for each category – be it adding, deleting or modifying them, or adding data that was not available, without the need to create a new registration.
The award platform also allows the jury to view and read the books submitted for the award online, and add their comments and observations on them, in addition to the possibility of evaluating the books before the official meetings of the jury, in order to ensure time and effort and accurate results.
Abdulaziz Taryam, CEO Advisor and General Manager of Etisalat (Northern Emirates) says, “Community service is one of the elements of leadership that distinguished Etisalat, which it sees as a major part of its business, and the award was one of the programmes that fall on the list of community support initiatives through which the company seeks to contribute with our partners in building creative generations and providing Arabic content that meets the aspirations of our societies and affects qualitative shifts in the knowledge industries that address children and young people.”
President of UAEBBY Al Aqroubi stated that the launch of the 14th edition of the award at the London exhibition is a clear indication of the achievements of Sharjah and its initiatives that reflect the cultural project of the emirate, and an indication of the great success achieved by the award in promoting the knowledge product that addresses children and young people, and advancing the cognitive movement for them to form basic pillars in shaping the future of their societies.
She adds, “The award has been presented over its 13 years, which has passed a constellation of creators whose products have been honoured, and it is still moving forward to achieve its goals and reach the Arab Children’s Literature to a place that competes at the global level, to be strongly present in international forums and exhibitions. We look forward to the new round of the award as an opportunity to present qualitative works that enrich the library of the Arab child and serve the emirate’s aspirations to invest in the awareness and knowledge of new generations.”
The total value of the Etisalat Award amounting to 1.2 million dirhams is distributed among five categories, with equal distribution of prize money between writers, illustrators, and publishers. A further amount of 300,000 dirhams is also allocated to its Warsha programme, a ground-breaking initiative by the Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature since 2013, that aims to find and nurture a new generation of Arab talent in the field of children’s literature and developing creative abilities and competence of aspiring authors to produce works that are closely rooted to the local Arab culture while at the same time competing with international standards.
