PanNature Welcomed Lauren Child in Quan Ba

From 14 to 16 April 2008, PanNature received a distinguished visitor from the United Kingdom – world-renowned children’s author Lauren Child. The visiting team, including Lauren, her friend Adrian Darbishsire, and Katja Pellini from UNESCO Vietnam, spent two days in Quan Ba district of Ha Giang province to observe environmental education and awareness activities carried out by PanNature at local schools and communities. The visit is part of the tour to Vietnam coordinated by the UNESCO office in Vietnam.

Lauren Child is probably the most talented, celebrated and original children’s author/illustrator living today. She burst onto the world stage in 1999 with two picture books, I Want a Pet and Clarice Bean – That’s Me. These hilarious and original books were an instant hit with the public. In 2000, Lauren Child won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato. Numerous other awards followed with new books, each one a run-away success with children and parents alike. Lauren Child’s books are now sold in their millions worldwide, in thirty languages, from Danish to Chinese, Catalan and Thai. Lauren Child was selected to showcase the best of British illustration and writing in an exhibition at the British Library. This exhibition now tours with the British Council worldwide. She was chosen in 2002 to be the artist to represent World Book Day. A new show of Lauren Child’s work is set to open in 2008 at the eminent Manchester Gallery in the United Kingdom. It is due to tour the country, gathering thousands of families at each venue.

Lauren Child was particularly moved by the diversity and impact of the original schemes used to help children within UNESCO’s Programme for the Education of Children in Need. A programme that gave free rein to children’s artistic and cultural talents as a way to implementing education naturally struck a rich chord with her.