Singapore International Foundation

Singapore community comes together to improve library services for children in Jaffna

Jaffna, 29 July 2011… The Singapore International Foundation (SIF) will officially hand over its Jaffna-based project – Enhancing Services in the Children’s Section of the Jaffna Public Library – to the Jaffna Municipal Council in Sri Lanka today. Singapore’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr George Yeo will be the Guest-of-Honour at the ceremony.

This project was initiated by Mr Yeo during a visit to Sri Lanka in October 2009, where he met with Sri Lankan leaders and envisaged a community-based project that would be meaningful to children. The project to enhance the services in the Children’s Section of the Jaffna Public Library was inspired by the library’s history and Singapore’s experience with library outreach and literacy programmes.

The SIF, which has worked towards the development of Sri Lanka since 1991, scoped and managed the project in consultation with the Jaffna Municipal Council, Jaffna Public Library and Singapore Cooperation Programme, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The initiative also received the strong support of members of the Singapore Sri Lankan community, Singapore’s National Library Board (NLB) and The Prima Group.

The coming together of different groups from Singapore’s community to support this project has helped to create a conducive learning space for Jaffna’s children and aims to promote a vibrant reading culture. “This has been a wonderful opportunity for members of the Singapore Sri Lankan Community to contribute to Jaffna’s children by equipping the Children’s Section of the library with resources that will make reading and learning enjoyable experiences,” said Dr C. Anandakumar, a member of the Singapore Sri Lankan Community.

Over the past 11 months, volunteer librarians from the NLB worked with their Sri Lankan counterparts to improve systems and operations within the Children’s Section; develop reading and educational programmes; and organise outreach programmes to schools in Jaffna. “By drawing on our experiences as children’s librarians, we hope we have passed on to our friends at the Jaffna Public Library the skills and techniques we use to inculcate a love for reading in children,” said Ms Amarjeet Kaur Gill, Assistant Director of Public Libraries at the NLB. The volunteers also shared their expertise in the physical remodelling of the Children’s Section, which The Prima Group helped to oversee.

Besides two training workshops carried out in Jaffna, a study visit to Singapore was also organised by the SIF for six Jaffna librarians to observe their Singapore counterparts at work in Singapore’s regional libraries.

“We are encouraged by the lasting friendships formed between Singapore and Sri Lanka through the good work of the librarians from both countries. We are sure that the exchange of experiences and skills will create ripples of positive change for the wider community in Jaffna,” said Mr Vinodh Coomaraswamy, SC, Governor of the SIF.

This project marks the SIF’s commitment to tangible, sustainable development in Sri Lanka, in areas including education, special education and social work. The foundation also supported post-disaster rehabilitation work following the 2004 Asian Tsunami.

Click here for the speech by Mr Vinodh Coomaraswamy, SC, SIF Governor at the handover ceremony for the project Enhancing services in the children's section at the Jaffna Public Library.