Goodwill Ambassadors
Honorary Ambassador
Special Envoys
Champions
Artists for Peace
Newsletter
|
| British children’s book author and illustrator Lauren Child is nominated UNESCO Artist for Peace by the Director-General |
09-05-2009 1:15 pm On 12 December 2008, the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, designated the British children’s book author, Lauren Child, as UNESCO Artist for Peace. The ceremony took place in UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and was graced by the presence of H. Exc. Mr George Anastassopoulos President of UNESCO’s General Conference and Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Greece to UNESCO; Mr Peter Landymore, Permanent Delegate of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to UNESCO and Mr Amri Aminov and Mr. Dani Karavan, UNESCO Artists for Peace. In his speech the Director-General acknowledged the contribution of Lauren Child to UNESCO’s Children in Need programme, praising her literary success and her millions of fans all over the world. He underlined that Ms Child is one of the most talented authors and illustrators today. Mr Matsuura emphasized the importance of this success to promoting literacy and a life-long habit for reading from an early age, a habit held dear by UNESCO, which ‘has been at the forefront of global efforts to keep literacy high on national,
regional and international agendas.’
Lauren Child has been actively involved with UNESCO in Egypt, Mexico and Mongolia through the programme Education of Children in Need. On 25 June 2008, UNESCO and Lauren Child signed a three-year partnership agreement whereby the author and her publisher, Hachette Children’s Books, will donate to the Organization all royalties and publisher profits on sales of the popular book “That Pesky Rat”. The funds generated by this book will be used to finance various projects for deprived children, such as those of the Foundation Renacimiento, which works with street children in Mexico. Another element of this partnership, “My Life is a Story”, is a campaign launched by Lauren Child to gather the stories of children from all over the world. In the first instance these stories will be collected from children benefiting from projects supported by UNESCO. In the longer term, schoolchildren throughout the world will be invited to write about their experiences so that
children from very different backgrounds will be able to compare these experiences.
In her acceptance speech, the British artist stated that ‘the real honour is the opportunity to work with UNESCO […] whose programmes change children’s lives around the world.’ Lauren Child also noted that ‘what makes UNESCO so unique is the optimism of its core belief – in other words the way it focuses on the positive aspects of this troubled world through its actions to improve education and preserve cultures and languages.
Photo (© UNESCO/Danica Bijeljac) : The Director-General of UNESCO and Ms Lauren Child
|
|
|
|
|
