With the aim of promoting Italian culture abroad, the Italian Embassy in Singapore, with the support of APICS – Italian Cultural Center Singapore, has donated to the National Library Board some 15 Italian children’s books translated into English.
These include books on Dante and The Divine Comedy, Gianni Rodari’s Telephone Tales and books on Italy’s major art cities, including Venice, Florence and Milan.
The initiative is part of the project “World & us: learning Beyond Boundaries-WNU“, an international partnership program that includes the donation of books for the selection “Story zone: stories from around the world“, which aims to educate children about the cultures and customs of different countries.
The donation ceremony was held on 24 February at the Tampines Regional Library and was attended by Ambassador Mario Vattani, NBL CEO Ng Cher Pong, APICS vice president Erica Marcellan and the head of APICS center Michela Frigo.
“I am grateful to APICS,” Ambassador Vattani said, “that gave us the opportunity to cooperate with the National Library Board. The National Library Board is a network located throughout Singapore that also includes various buildings characterized by themes such as sustainability, design, multimedia. They represent an ideal partner for us to introduce Italian culture and our excellence to the varied and always curious local community. The cultural and ethnic wealth that coexists in Singapore in a multiplicity of languages and realities is amazing”.
The books will be part of the new children’s collection at the Punggol Regional Library, which will open in mid-2022.
The new library will be Singapore’s first fully inclusive library, attentive to people with special needs and disabilities through the development of innovative and digital services to support them.
In recent months the Italian Embassy has already donated to the NLB some 20 copies of Geronimo Stilton’s novel ‘A Thousand Wonders‘, published in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and dedicated to Italy’s many UNESCO sites.
