Qatar-Morocco 2024 Cultural Year Activities in Rabat

The Qatar Reads Initiative of the Qatar National Library (QNL) has delivered a number of books to the Moroccan National Library, as part of its participation in the activities of the Qatar-Morocco 2024 Cultural Year in the capital Rabat, and within the cultural years initiative of Qatar Museums, to strengthen ties, encourage dialogue, and deepen understanding between countries and peoples. The initiative organized, as part of the Family Reading Program, a session in which children gathered around the narrator at the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco as he told them the story of "Hayy ibn Yaqzan" inspired by the novel by Ibn Tufayl, written by Qatari writer Asma Al Kuwari, illustrated by Maliha Ahmadi, and translated by Dr. Safar Haji Safar, using the Japanese art of (Kami Shibai), which is a form of narration using a group of illustrated panels. This book was published as part of the "One Book, One Community" campaign for the year 2023 in cooperation with (Qatar Reads) and the Ministry of Culture. The Qatari Embassy in Rabat also hosted a similar event during which a number of Qatari and Moroccan children were hosted, where they were honored with a number of gifts and books. The family reading program of the "Qatar Reads" initiative targets children between the ages of 3 and 13, to encourage them to love books and develop their home libraries. Regarding the event, Fatima Al Maliki, Director of the "Qatar Reads" program, said in statements that this cultural event, which will continue until next December in a number of Moroccan cities, seeks to connect the family with books and encourage the reading community, noting that it coincides with the distribution of a thousand reading packages about Morocco to children in Qatar, and the presentation of the book "Mary in Morocco" directed at children, whose idea revolves around enabling children to discover new places and ideas about Morocco in a distinctive narrative style. In turn, Dr. Mohamed Al Tawil, Head of Programming and Technical Interventions at th e Book Directorate of the Moroccan Ministry of Culture, Youth and Communication, confirmed that the "Qatar Reads" initiative program included distributing book packages, in addition to visits for children to media libraries and a group of libraries in the Rabat-Salé-Kenitra region, in order to spread reading among them, pointing out that this event also witnesses the organization of several artistic activities, including plays and visual art shows related to the style of storytelling and illustrated narration. For her part, Nada Ali Bahzad, the main official responsible for program development at the Qatar National Library (QNL), noted the cooperation with the Moroccan National Library, and the pursuit of achieving common goals by instilling a love of reading in the youth, and enhancing the role of reading in the exchange of cultures and creativity among children. The cultural year (Qatar-Morocco 2024) is being developed in cooperation with a number of leading institutions in Qatar, within the organizing co mmittee of the Cultural Years initiative with its partners from the Kingdom of Morocco, and with the assistance of the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication in Morocco, the Embassy of Qatar in Rabat, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in Doha. Source: Qatar News Agency