Press release
25 March 2009
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Culture
Minister for Culture and Minister for International Development Cooperation on this year's ALMA award winner
The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award rewards work in the humanistic spirit of Astrid Lindgren. The 2009 award goes to the Tamer Institute. This organisation carries out reading promotion activities for children and young people in the West Bank and Gaza.
Minister for Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth and Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson have issued a joint comment:
"This year the jury's choice went to an organisation whose reading promotion activities are characterised by a strong belief in literature and children's own creativity as keys to an open society. They spread children's books where they are most needed - to young people living in difficult conditions, where there is a lack of traditional education channels and in an area where not least girls have historically had less access to literature.
"The fact that the prize is rewarding reading promotion activities that so tangibly demonstrate how children's literature can be a positive counterweight and a path to democracy is gratifying. The purposes of the organisation and of the Literature Award have clear common links: both are committed to strengthening the status of children's literature and children's rights."
Contact
Cecilia JehlerPeter Larsson
+46 8 405 10 00
