Organization
Sipar
Sipar is a French nonprofit that runs libraries and reading programs in Cambodia and publishes books in Khmer for children and young readers.[1][2] It began in France in 1982 as a group that helped refugees from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos settle there, and it has worked in Cambodia since the early 1990s.[1][3] Its Phnom Penh office is in Chamkar Mon.[2]
History
Bernadette Chaventon and Magali Petitmengin founded Sipar in France in 1982.[4] Its first work was hosting: groups of French volunteers each took in a refugee family and helped it with housing, work, paperwork and school until it could manage alone.[4] From 1986 it taught French at the Phanat Nikhom camp in Thailand, where refugees waited to leave for France, and from 1989 it worked at sites on the Thai border to prepare people to go home to Cambodia.[4][2]
Sipar and the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia date its arrival in Cambodia to 1991; the Asia-Europe Foundation's culture360 site and Cambodge Magazine give 1992.[4][2][3][5] At the request of the Ministry of Education it first sent advisers to the provincial education offices and teacher training schools of Kampong Speu, Kampong Chhnang, Prey Veng and Kandal.[4][2] Sipar describes the library it opened in a wooden house in Kampong Speu in 1993 as the country's first for children. There were no children's books in Khmer at the time, so staff bought picture books in France and Thailand and pasted Khmer translations onto the pages.[4]
Libraries and reading
From 1993, with the French Ministry of Education, Sipar set up 318 school libraries, a program now run by Cambodia's Ministry of Education with Sipar in a supporting role.[4] Cambodge Magazine puts the figure at 310 schools, with more than 2,600 librarians trained.[5] Sipar also places libraries and reading corners in villages, hospitals and garment factories.[5]
Its first mobile library, a minivan, went on the road in 2000. Sipar counts 10 mobile libraries in seven provinces, including tuk-tuk libraries and two boats on the Tonle Sap.[4] A prison program began in four prisons in 2011 and has grown to libraries in 28 prisons run by the General Department of Prisons.[4] Youth clubs in rural areas also began in 2011, and since 2018 mobile libraries have visited brick factories, whose workers Sipar describes as extremely vulnerable.[4]
Publishing
Sipar dates its publishing house to 2001; the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia and Cambodge Magazine give 2000.[4][2][5] It publishes fiction and nonfiction in Khmer in series graded from first picture books to adult readers, sold at low prices in bookshops and handed out through its own and other groups' programs.[6] Sipar's history page gives 306 titles and 3.3 million copies printed since 2001, and its publishing page gives 3.6 million copies; Cambodge Magazine counted more than 200 titles and 2.4 million copies distributed.[4][6][5] In 2023 the publishing house became a social enterprise separate from the association, meant to fund the association's work from book sales.[4] Its titles include Cambodian Wooden Houses: 1,500 Years of Khmer Heritage by Darryl Collins and Hok Sokol, printed in Phnom Penh.[5]
References 6
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sipar, Who are we? (undated)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, NGO database: SIPAR (undated)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 ASEF culture360, Sipar Cambodia (2018)
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 Sipar, Our history (undated)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Cambodge Magazine, Books & Architecture: Meet Koh Sokol, co-author of Cambodian Wooden Houses (undated)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Sipar, Our publishing house (undated)