Amsterdam, On October 29, the Biblionef Foundation celebrated its fifteenth anniversary in the brand new Amsterdam Public Library on the IJ. Before the start of the festivities in “The theatre of words”, four groups of guests were conducted through the ultra modern new library designed by the architect Jo Coenen. It was quite an experience to walk through such a multi-functional building. The multi-media library itself consists of three sloping terraces [floors] connected by means of ...[more]

South Africa, Retreat: Jean Williams, director of Biblionef in South Africa went to the Little Footprints Creche and handed over 28 childrens books, 4 posters, 2 puzzles and a 3 Little pigs video to them. They are a very well kept pre-school with some wonderful children. [more]

The Hague : During the first half of this year 42 pallets were sent via Biblionef, The Netherlands to Biblionef in Surinam, The Dutch Antilles and Aruba. These contained the following: 11.330 picture books and children's books and well over 4.300 children's dictionaries. 28 Pallets contained nothing but children's magazines. In Surinam especially there is a huge demand for the magazines, the kids are crazy about them. Central Freight Services transported the pallets to Surinam at a reduced...[more]

Wezup, 23 June: It is estimated that the first literary festival "Zomerzinnen" on 23 June this year drew around the 2000 visitors. In spite of the heavy cloudburst the festival was a huge success. There were performances by a number of well-known writers e.g. Jan Siebelink, Kader Abdolah, Mensje van Keulen, Frank Westerman as well as by the poet laureate, Driek van Wissen.The many monumental farming estates in the Wezup area opened their doors to the public and the festival opening by Freek de...[more]

Nepal, Pokhara, a report from Julia de Zwart of the Foundation Namaste Nepal: We are exceptionally proud of our new building, the "Namaste Primary School". The best part of it is that we now have a separate library whereas we used to have to share the space with the kitchen. The floor of our library is carpeted and we have a mass of comfortable cushions to sit on. There are also two big reading tables with benches. We are fortunate in having experience of your lovely English language readers...[more]