Highlights from 2013 – 2011
2013
This year we prepared five more Hoopoe titles. They are now press-ready in English-Urdu editions: The Silly Chicken, Neem the Half-Boy, Fatima The Spinner and the Tent and The Magic Horse all by Idries Shah and translated by Hafeez Diwan.
To date, we have printed and distributed a total of 25,000 books of the first five titles and will print and distribute more just as soon as we have the funds to do so.
‘When I spoke to the coordinators in Muzaffargarh they told me that the children were completely caught up by the beautiful illustrations and the power of the stories! One child commented:
“I thought I would only find books of this sort in the homes my mother works in! Imagine finding them in my own school. How blessed I am!”’
from our partner is Pakistan,
Mrs. Basarat Kazim Founder and President of
Alif Laila Book Bus Society
2012
Hoopoe Books is delighted to announce a new collaboration with the Alif Laila (Arabian Nights) Book Bus Society. Established in 1978, Alif Laila was one of the first groups in Pakistan to focus primarily on empowerment of civil society and social reform, mainly through education. It has served over one million disadvantaged children through its schools and mobile libraries, and is working with us to distribute Hoopoe Books to these children throughout Pakistan.
Alif Laila uses girls’ education to fight poverty and gender inequality, believing that “by educating girls, we are not only eradicating the secondary place of women in our society, and bringing them up to par with men, but also ensuring the advancement and modernization of our total society. An educated mother has it in her power to change the very culture of the most basic social unit — the family.”
We continue to collaborate with DIL (Developments in Literacy) to donate these beautiful children’s books to the children they serve. DIL runs 150 schools serving approximately 15,000 children, especially girls, in underdeveloped regions in Pakistan.
In June 2012 we donated 2,800 copies each of two more titles: The Clever Boy and the Terrible, Dangerous Animal and The Old Woman and The Eagle to DIL and received this report from them.
2011
This year begins a collaboration with DIL (Developments in Literacy) to donate these beautiful children’s books by Idries Shah to the children they serve. DIL runs 150 schools serving approximately 15,000 children, especially girls, in underdeveloped regions in Pakistan.
These are bilingual English and Urdu editions, so that children can read the Urdu translation and the English on the facing page. We have translated three titles that are now ready to print: The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water, The Clever Boy and the Terrible, Dangerous Animal and The Old Woman and The Eagle.
In June 2011 we distributed an initial 2,800 copies of the first Urdu-English bilingual edition of The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water to DIL. The response was very heart-warming and we hope to be able to do more for these children very soon!
“The Hoopoe Books were distributed in all DIL Orangi Schools last week. The response is absolutely delightful! The children enjoyed the stories immensely, especially the colourful illustrations and characters. The younger children roared along with the lion, providing sound effects for it amidst peals of laughter saying ‘How can the King of the jungle be afraid of his own reflection?’ The older children talked about how ignorance and miscommunication can induce fear and prevent us from understanding each other but how everything worked out in the end when all the animals understood the lion and stopped fearing it.
“Even the pre-readers loved the books; looking at the pictures giggling and interpreting the images, wondering aloud what would happen next and then turning the page over in anticipation.
“The teachers enjoyed the books just as much as the children did, especially the illustrations, they said, and hoped more books of the same kind would be coming.
“One teacher said she had been doing a lesson on reflection with her grade 2 students when these books were given and was delighted to see that she could use it to reinforce her lesson. Even some of the kids who hadn’t taken an interest earlier, now understood and enjoyed the lesson.” —Zeba Shafi, Regional Program Manager South, Developments in Literacy.