On 3 February 2016 the Embassy of Sweden, the Committee for Refugee and IDP Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, TeliaSonera/Azercell and Ali & Nino Publishing launched a joint social project. The project launch took place in the Masazir IDP Settlement.
The joint project encompasses all regions of Azerbaijan and will provide each of the country’s 610 refugee and IDP schools with nine books by the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren in entirely new translations into the Azeri language.
The project will help Azerbaijani children from refugee and IDP families to develop a desire for reading.
As the books will be commercially available through the Ali & Nino bookstores, the project will also strengthen access to quality children's literature in the Azerbaijani language on a general level.
With its strong Swedish dimension, the project will raise awareness in Sweden of the situation of the Azerbaijani IDPs.
The intercultural ties between Azerbaijan and Sweden will be strengthened through follow-on activities of mutual benefit, such as discussions between Swedish and Azerbaijani experts on child literature.
Theatre performances based on Astrid Lindgren plays are under discussion with i.a. the State Theatre for Young Spectators, which assisted the IDP School in staging some short performances from Astrid Lindgren books at the launch event of the book project.
Meanwhile, the Swedish Embassy will assist in bringing the Azerbaijani children’s literature to a broader audience – for instance by introducing Azerbaijani organizations as nominating bodies for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the most prestigious international children’s literature award.
For more information, please contact news@mcs.az
Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996 and since the first years sustains a leading position in the market. Azercell introduced number of technological innovations in Azerbaijan: GSM technology, advance payment mobile services, M2M,MobilBank, GPRS/EDGE (mobile internet), 24/7 Customer Care, full-time operating Azercell Express offices, mobile e-service “ASAN imza” (ASAN signature) and others. With 48,2% share of Azerbaijan’s mobile market Azercell’s network covers 99,8% of the country’s population. In 2013, the number of Azercell’s subscribers reached 4,5 million people. In 2011 Azercell deployed 3G and in 2012 the fourth generation network – LTE in Azerbaijan. The Company is the leader of Azerbaijan’s mobile communication industry and the biggest investor in the non-oil sector. Azercell is a part of TeliaSonera Group of Companies serving 186 million subscribers in 17 countries worldwide with 27,000 employees.