- Title: Meet the 8-year-old Iraqi who wrote a coronavirus children book
- Date: 29th March 2021
- Summary: BASRA, IRAQ (MARCH 19, 2021) (REUTERS) (PART MUTE) 8-YEAR-OLD IRAQI GIRL, MANAR ALKAMIL, ARRANGING COPIES OF HER BOOKS BOOK READING (English): 'GET SAFE FROM THE CORONAVIRUS. MANAR ALKAMIL' DISPLAYED BACK OF THE BOOK SHOWING ALKAMIL'S PICTURE WITH A MESSAGE FROM ALKAMIL VARIOUS OF ALKAMIL READING FROM HER BOOK (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) 8-YEAR-OLD IRAQI GIRL, WRITER OF 'GET SAFE FROM THE CORONAVIRUS' BOOK, MANAR ALKAMIL, SAYING: "I made this book so that children know how to protect themselves from this ugly coronavirus. In the book, there are comics and many other things about this coronavirus. There are English and Arabic version, so that children who speak Arabic read it in Arabic and those who speak English read it in English." VARIOUS OF ALKAMIL WRITING VARIOUS OF ALKAMIL CHECKING PAPERS WITH HER FATHER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MANAR ALKAMIL'S FATHER, ITHAR HESHAM, SAYING: "Manar writes her thoughts towards what happened because of coronavirus and how it prevented her from many things that make her happy. So she started to wonder when this virus and pandemic will end, so we can return to our normal life? After a while, her mother discovered that these thoughts can be written down in a book that answers questions of children her age: why are we at home? why don't we go out?" ALKAMIL LOOKING ON ALKAMIL SITTING TO READ HER BOOK ALKAMIL CHECKING HER BOOK PAGE FROM THE BOOK (MUTE) (SOUNDBITE) (English) 8-YEAR-OLD IRAQI GIRL, WRITER OF 'GET SAFE FROM THE CORONAVIRUS' BOOK, MANAR ALKAMIL, SAYING: "(I) wrote this story, first one of my notebooks, in a pencil and an eraser, a pencil and a page. I was writing and I choose the pictures on my mom's phone. I chose them so she could draw and colour them." ALKAMIL KNOCKING ON HER FRIEND'S DOOR AND GIVING HER A COPY OF HER BOOK VARIOUS OF ALKAMIL AND HER FRIEND, WEARING FACEMASKS, CHECKING AND READING THE BOOK (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MANAR ALKAMIL'S FATHER, ITHAR HESHAM, SAYING: "Writing this book was 100% Manar's writing, her style but for the medical information, her grandfather, aunt and uncle - who are doctors - helped her to have the right medical information." BASRA, IRAQ (MARCH 24, 2021) (REUTERS) WORKER AT GHADIR PUBLISHING HOUSE OPERATING ON MACHINE PRINTING ALKAMIL'S 'GET SAFE FROM THE CORONAVIRUS' BOOK BOOK BEING PRINTED VARIOUS OF HEAD OF GHADIR PUBLISHING HOUSE, ABDUL MAHDI AL-AMERI, CHECKING PRINTS FROM THE BOOK (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HEAD OF GHADIR PUBLISHING HOUSE, ABDUL MAHDI AL-AMERI, SAYING: "The book (Manar Alkamil's book) is important at this time and when we saw its human influence on all children, especially at this current time, we took responsibility of printing and publishing it with her (Alkamil's) father." MACHINE PRINTING ALKAMIL'S BOOK VARIOUS OF WORKER MONITORING PRINTING
- Embargoed: 12th April 2021 11:21
- Keywords: Basra COVID-19 Iraq book girl thoughts
- Location: BASRA, IRAQ
- City: BASRA, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Health/Medicine,Middle East
- Reuters ID: LVA001E64Z2OL
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Manar Alkamil, an 8-year-old Iraqi girl, took advantage of her time in the coronavirus lockdown to write a children book in which she expresses her thoughts about the pandemic, how it affected her life and ways to be protected from the virus.
Alkamil first started expressing her thoughts with a pencil on her notebook. Her mother thought it could go into a book and raise awareness about COVID-19 among children. It then developed into what was now published under the title "Get Safe From The Coronavirus".
"I made this book so that children know how to protect themselves from this ugly coronavirus. In the book, there are comics and many other things about this coronavirus," the 8-year-old said.
Alkamil's father, Ithar Hesham, assures all writing in the book are his daughter's but doctor family members helped with the medical information to get them accurate.
Alkamil wrote the book in Iraq, but the first 85 copies were printed and distributed on friends and relatives in the United States, where Alkamil used to live until June 2019.
In Iraq, a local publishing house supported the young writer's talents and will help her family in publishing more than 500 copies of the book free of charge, half of them in English and half in Arabic.
Those will be distributed on libraries in Basra, the culture minister and the school where Alkamil studies.
Iraq has recorded 832,428 COVID-19 cases and 14,212 deaths caused by the virus, as of Sunday (March 28).
(Production: Mohamad Aty, Maher Nazeh, Kinda Makieh) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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