According to the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, several institutions and publishing houses organized more than 300 activities within the SILEJ pavilions, between book signings, awareness meetings and artistic and manual workshops.
The 2nd edition of the International Children's and Youth Book Fair (SILEJ), which closed on Sunday, saw the participation of 340 direct and indirect exhibitors from 29 countries and the attendance of more than 101,000 visitors. Organized under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, by the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, this Fair was an opportunity to present a documentary collection of more than 40,000 titles for a total exceeding the 150,000 copies, indicates a press release from the ministry, specifying that Wallonia-Brussels was the guest of honor for this edition.
Regarding parallel cultural programming, specifies the same source, the rooms dedicated to meetings and workshops hosted a total of 70 sessions, as part of a professional program intended for aspiring writers and illustrators in the industry. book for children and young people, with the aim of introducing a new generation of Moroccan creators capable of creating a national platform dedicated to this industry, both in the fields of writing, illustration and artistic production. The program included conferences, workshops and training sessions, including coaching workshops in the field of school library management for the benefit of a team from the Ministry of National Education. At the same time, the seven spaces dedicated to cultural activities hosted the “Mots'Arts” program with more than 405 workshops, addressing different themes such as literary writing techniques, media and cinema, theater, music , photography, bodily expressions, drawing, ceramics, architecture, design and performing arts.
In addition, more than 20,000 children had the opportunity to explore the space dedicated to the works of the famous Belgian cartoonist “Peyo”, creator of the Smurfs series. Furthermore, several institutions and publishing houses have, for their part, organized more than 300 activities within the SILEJ pavilions, including book signings, awareness-raising meetings and artistic and manual workshops. Furthermore, the Show benefited from media coverage provided by 65 audiovisual, written and radio media, in addition to extensive live broadcasting via various social networks.
This second edition of SILEJ, organized from December 14 to 22 at “Anfa Park” in Casablanca in partnership with the wilaya of the Casablanca-Settat region and the council of the municipality of Casablanca, marks a step forward for this cultural event aimed the promotion of books and the dissemination of the culture of reading as a lever for human development, where access to knowledge plays a fundamental role, concludes the press release.
