Shekar Khanoom's Neighborhood

 Shekar Khanoom's Neighborhood is a collection of short stories by Nasser Yousefi, first published in 2015. Within just a season, it reached its second edition, and by 2021, it had been reprinted seven times.

The book gained wide popularity through the efforts of reading advocates and non-governmental educational organizations, spreading among various groups of children, especially in different cities and villages. It is rare to see a children's book in Iran receive such widespread promotion and engagement.

This report provides a glimpse into the extensive promotion journey of Shekar Khanoom's Neighborhood.

Shekar Khanoom's Neighborhood is a collection of 36 short stories set in a neighbourhood where an older woman named Shekar Khanoom serves as the central figure. Through her wisdom and kindness, Shekar Khanoom strives to uphold the values of community living, encouraging children and adults to maintain strong social connections.

The stories in Shekar Khanoom's Neighborhood have inspired a series of community-driven social projects to improve children's lives in various regions. These projects were designed to promote the book and foster the development of humanistic values in younger generations.

1. Group Readings in Schools and Libraries

The book was introduced through organized group readings in various cities across Iran. Children and educators gathered in schools and libraries to read and discuss the stories, emphasizing themes of friendship, cooperation, and caring for others. These sessions often included interactive elements such as role-playing and art activities, where children recreated scenes from the stories.

2. Neighborhood Storytelling Festivals

A series of neighbourhood storytelling festivals was held, where local children, parents, and community members came together to share their stories. Inspired by the tales of Shekar Khanoom, these festivals emphasized the importance of oral tradition and community bonds. Children had the opportunity to showcase their creativity by crafting and telling their own stories.

3. Social Media Campaigns

A social media campaign encouraged young readers to share their thoughts and experiences about the book. The hashtag #ShekarKhanoomsNeighborhood quickly gained popularity, with children from all over Iran posting their artwork, reflections, and favourite parts of the stories. These campaigns further expanded the book's reach and engagement.

4. Collaborations with NGOs

Several non-governmental organizations dedicated to children's welfare and education took the book to remote areas. The project aimed at introducing Shekar Khanoom's Neighborhood in places with limited access to books, allowing children in such areas to explore the stories and engage with the lessons of kindness, respect, and peace.

One of the most beautiful aspects of Shekar Khanoom's Neighborhood is its role in encouraging family-based storytelling. Families were invited to read the stories aloud together, and parents and grandparents shared the lessons of Shekar Khanoom with younger generations.

1. Grandparents as Storytellers

The book resonated particularly with older people, who related closely to the character of Shekar Khanoom. Many grandparents took it upon themselves to read these stories to their grandchildren, passing on valuable life lessons and sparking deeper family connections. This practice of intergenerational storytelling became a cherished tradition in many households.

2. Storytelling Circles for Parents

Workshops were organized for parents, where they learned how to tell stories and effectively create narratives for their children. These workshops focused on storytelling for moral education, emotional expression, and creating shared memories within families.

Shekar Khanoom had a profound impact on young readers. Empathy, community, and patience resonated deeply with children, sparking their imagination and promoting social responsibility.

1. Creating Empathy

Children learned about empathy and understanding others through Shekar Khanoom's lessons and words. They were encouraged to care for their peers, family members, and even strangers, which helped create a more compassionate mindset among the younger generation.

2. Building Community Spirit

The stories emphasized the importance of community, and children were inspired to form deeper connections with their neighbours and friends. Many children, motivated by the values depicted in the book, took the initiative in organizing events or helping those in need in their own neighbourhoods.

3. FosterinCreativityty

Shekar Khanoom's neighbourhood became a space for children to explore creativity. Many young readers started creating their own stories, drawings, and performances based on the book's characters and settings, adding their own unique twists to the narrative.

Shekar Khanoom's Neighborhood continues to have a lasting influence on children's lives, and its future prospects look bright. The book is being translated into multiple languages to reach a broader audience, and there are plans to adapt it into a stage play and animated series.

Efforts are being made to expand the book's reach to international markets, especially in countries where Persian-speaking communities reside. Educational institutions and libraries worldwide are also interested in incorporating the book into their curriculum to promote cultural understanding and humanitarian values.

Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood in Educational Centers

Since 2016, many educational centers, including kindergartens, specialized training centers, non-governmental organizations, and elementary school teachers, have worked with children using the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood book as a guide for various cultural and social activities.

So far, more than 120 educational centers in Tehran and other cities across the country have documented their experiences working with the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood stories.

All of these centers have reported that the stories provided them with the opportunity to use the book's events based on the needs, issues, or situations they encountered with the children, such as:

• Conflicts and Reconciliation
• Celebrating Nowruz (Persian New Year)
• Citizenship Rights
• Environmental Awareness
• Care for People with Disabilities
• Traditional Foods
• Native Languages

Many teachers in schools across the country have implemented the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood reading program with their students.

Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood in Villages

The stories of Shakar Khanoom take place in a city, which places the book in the category of urban literature. The stories aim to familiarize children with neighbourhood life, neighbours, and urban living. However, the relationships and interactions in the stories are not limited to the city. Children in all regions of Iran can enjoy reading this book, and its activities and themes can also be experienced in rural life.

Without prior planning, some rural libraries and cultural centers began reading Shakar Khanoom stories with rural children and documenting their experiences in various ways. This suggested that all rural libraries could participate in the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood project. For volunteer villages, the book was sent free of charge.

To support this, the experiences of other schools and educational centers, especially materials prepared on the Instagram page of "Khorshid-e-Mardom," were shared with rural libraries. This allowed many children in rural areas nationwide to benefit from reading the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood stories.

Villages such as Dehkan in Jiroft, Najar Mahalleh and Mazgah in Nowshahr, Soleymankala in Babolsar, Kaliran and Abtar in Iranshahr, Selkh in Qeshm, and activities of the Children's Cultural Development Center were among the organizations that carried out extensive programs with rural children.

Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood and Afghan Migrant Children

In part of the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood stories, an Afghan family becomes neighbours of Shakar Khanoom. The presence of this migrant family allows self-managed Afghan migrant schools and non-governmental organizations working with Afghan migrant children to use this book in their educational programs.

Organizations such as the Kousha Association, Mazgah Village Library, the Small Tree Association, and "A House for the Future" carried out diverse activities with Afghan migrant children.

With the widespread promotion of the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood book, the title "Shakar Khanoom" seems to have become a term among various groups of the book's audience. "Shakar Khanoom" has become a term for all charming, beloved, influential, and practical people 

The "Baz Ham Safar" Instagram page requested its audience to introduce their "Shakar Khanoom." These individuals could be men and women who are beloved in their personal or social lives and have made a significant contribution to each of our lives.

This initiative led to a grateful act where people remembered their favourite characters and different groups of children and adolescents participated in the program.

In May 2022, Story and Folklore Bookstore and Ofogh Publishing invited all groups, centers, and educational organizations nationwide to participate in the Shakar Khanoom Festival.

This event provided a platform for different groups to share their educational experiences working with the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood book.
This nationwide initiative aimed to document aland publish all the experiencesn a collection.

Through a public call, Theory and Folklore Bookstore invited all the groups, individuals, and organizations that had worked with the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood book with children to participate in the Shakar Khanoom Festival.
At this event, dozens of educational centers expressed their readiness, and a variety of activities based on the book's stories were designed.

The festival lasted for a week, with each day focused on a specific theme:

• Day 1: Grandparents's Day invited active grandparents to share their personal and social experiences. The "Khorshid-e-Donya" association comprises active grandparents in the social field, and the "Empower Grandmothers" association from Babol hosted this event. They discussed the role of modern grandparents in storytelling and child care based on the Shakar Khanoom stories.

• Day 2: Forgotten Professions
  In one of the stories, Shakar Khanoom introduces children to old tools that were once widely used. Based on this theme, the group introduced professions that children today rarely see or experience, such as:

                       ○ Pottery Repairman

                       ○ Traveling Shoemaker

                       ○ Ice Seller

                       ○ Scribe

                       ○ Doll Repairman

                       ○ Quilter

Children could visit various booths and interact with these professionals. The program was inspiring for the children.

• Day 3: Tree Lovers

• Nearly 20,000 copies of Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood have been sold.
• Based on analytical websites, over one million individuals, alone or collectively, have read Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood.
• More than 300 educational centers, kindergartens, libraries, schools, training centers, and non-governmental organizations across the country have worked with the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood book with children.
• Thanks to the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood book, there are around 5,000 social projects, individually, collectively, or organized.
• The search engines record Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood as one of the highest-ranked children's books in the literary field.

Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood may be one of the few promotional experiences in Iranian children's literature that has become a nationwide social movement.
Beyond families and children, many organizations and educational centers associated with children have embraced this book and collectively read it with various groups of children in cities and villages across the country, creating multiple activities around it.

Promoters, facilitators, educators, and even specialized idea generators and advertising companies have successfully developed a new model for promoting books at the social level.

This movement has taken the Shakar Khanoom Neighborhood book off library shelves and transformed it into a social and educational movement alongside its readers.
This model seems to apply to other books as well.