Two sunbirds and a flower

Sunbird: for young refugees from Iran and Afghanistan

The Books Away From Home Foundation is proud to announce its newest book project for refugee children: Sunbird, named after a little bird that makes its home in both Iran and Afghanistan. After the success of our first (and ongoing) project for Ukrainian refugee kids, we are now in the process of selecting 5-10 picture books in Persian, for Iranian and Afghan refugee children now living in Europe. And who continue to arrive. Most of these children have no books of their own, and it's not easy for them to find books in their native language. (For those who didn't yet know, most Iranian and Afghan children can read Persian, which makes this project particularly beneficial!)

Thanks to TUTI Books (Iran), the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University (ACKU), the Gahwara Organization, the Dutch-Afghan foundation KEIHAN, the Institute for Research on the History of Children’s Literature (Iran) and a growing group of enthusiastic readers and specialists, we expect to be able to provide books in the coming months. But we need your help.

Donations will be used in two ways:

  • to order a wide range of beautiful, full-color, Persian language children's books (at the special low rate of 2 euros per book) from TUTI Books, which will then be distributed from our office in the Netherlands

  • to fund the printing of the first round of Afghan books: approximately 5,000 books in total.

Once all these books are printed and distributed to their new owners, we will begin another donation “action”, for a new round of books. The books are absolutely free to refugee children, refugee families, and refugee shelters. Schools, libraries and hospitals are asked to pay the (low) cost price. In all cases, we ask only to be reimbursed for the cost of shipping.

We heartily invite you to donate! See big orange buttons above and below.

The first 5 books have been officially chosen for the Sunbird project. Here they are, and more details are on the way about the books from TUTI!

Two Interesting Stories
دو داستان خواندنی برای اطفال دوست داشتنی (Two Stories for Lovely Children)

Two little stories for children to read, or for their lovely parents to read to them. ❤️ Recommended for ages 3-6.

My Special Blanket
پتوی پشمی من (My Special Blanket)

"My mother loves me very much. I love my mother, too. And I love my blanket." Recommended for ages 3-6.

Who is Our Friend?
دوست ما کیست؟ (Who is Our Friend?)

Do our friends have to be exactly like us? Can we be different? This book tells us more. Recommended for ages 3-6.

Sun's Daughter and Black Demon
دختر آفتاب و دیو سیاه (The Sun's Daughter and the Black Demon)

For centuries, a land has been ravaged by a demon who blocks the sunlight with his huge hands. Then, one day, the demon meets the sun's daughter. Recommended for ages 6-9.

A Gift From Our Ancestors
تحفه‌ای از نیاکان ما (A Gift From Our Ancestors)

The story of a boy and a girl, Sohrab and Golali, and an ancient clay bowl with mysterious writing. A book for history lovers. Recommended for ages 6-9.

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