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African chapter of UN SDG Book Club comes alive

After several months of planning and building, the UN SDG Book Club, African Chapter has finally been inaugurated. The event held on April 23, 2021 via Facebook live in commemoration of UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day.

After several months of planning and building, the UN SDG Book Club, African Chapter has finally been inaugurated. The event held on April 23, 2021 via Facebook live in commemoration of UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day.

Conceived as a very unique and multi-lateral project seeking first and foremost the coming together of key institutions of the African book industry in order to achieve a common and laudable goal.

The founding members include African Publishers Network (APNET), African Library and Information Association and Institutions (AFLIA), Pan-African Writers Association (PAWA), Pan-African Booksellers Association (PABA), Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), Borders Literature for all Nations simply known as BORDERS and the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Windhoek, Namibia

According to the organisers’ spokesperson and founder of Borders Literature for All Nations, Ms. Olatoun Gabi-Williams the UN SDG Book Club African Chapter is basically children-friendly and aims to use a wide-range of suitable genres of books as a tool to encourage children from ages of six to12 so that they can interact with the principles of United Nations (UN) sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

During the inauguration, the curated reading lists relating to the 17 UN Sustainable Development goals featured books from around the world in all six official UN Languages namely Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russia and Spanish.

The book club, Gabi-Williams further explained, operates in four main languages of Africa such as Kiswahili, French, English and Arabic. More importantly, she disclosed that the grand jury that will pick at regular intervals an honorary book in an indigenous African language for showcasing on the reading list of books picked in the four main languages of the club comprises an array of experienced writers, editors, booksellers, publishers and Librarians.

To round up the inauguration, the club unveiled its website hosted by UN Namibia and revealed the first set of reading lists addressing themes of SDG1 – No poverty and SDG2 – No hunger.

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