AOC celebrates book week with local children’s center

By Chili Li

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands — In October, The Netherlands celebrated Kinderboekenweek,  a tradition dating back more than 50 years that encourages children to read and suggests books for them. In aid of this special event, AOC volunteers joined The Hague Public Library (Bibliotheek Den Haag) to bring the joy of reading to 55 children at Kommunika (a local children’s care center).

“We've had a very happy and joyful afternoon with all the kids and the people from Aramco Overseas Company who have made it possible,” said Ramon Uljee, a youth worker at Kommunika. “I think an initiative like this can be very beneficial for the local children’s community, and it certainly is a good way to promote reading and education to children.”.

The children were delighted to see the arrival of a mini library and books donated by AOC employees and Bibliotheek Den Haag, an added surprise to their usual after-school activity. They enjoyed a cozy afternoon sitting on cushions in an Arabian Majlis ( a traditional meeting space) listening to our employees and library representative reading to them. Michael Patterson, from AOC’s Supplier Relations team, said: “I was reading to them in both Dutch and English, it was great to see how concentrated they were while listening.”

The children also had a lot of fun making bookmarks and baking letter cookies. Michelle Lowe from Internal Compliance admitted: “I wasn’t really sure what to expect of this event. I guess I thought we’d be sitting reading with a small group of children all the time. However, it turned out to be much more than that and a lot of fun.”

“It’s hard to believe how creative and enthusiastic they were when they made the bookmarks,” said Paulo de Sa, from Supplier Relations.

All the children received a gift bag with a library card and a book discount card, which they can use at The Hague public library and other book stores. The Saudi Aramco corporate video for children titled “… But where does it come from?” was also in the gift bag. The event ended with a wheel of fortune game where all the children received an AOC donated gift. “We really appreciate the effort and contribution from Aramco Overseas Company, and we hope to carry out more projects like this together for children and their education in the near future,” said Karin van Dijk from the Hague public library.