This year nine applications to the Fund of the Cultural Exchange received a subsidy for implementation of their actions. Among them there was the project of the Foundation of Initiatives Socially Responsible (FISO) from Gdańsk. Beginning in October 2008, in cooperation with Norwegian partners the Foundation started realization of the project Promotion of Norwegian children's literature in Poland.

The Fund of the Cultural Exchange operates in the framework of the Financial Mechanism EEA and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism. It is supposed to enable the cooperation between Polish authors and the artists of Norway, Lichtenstein and Iceland in fields concerning music, theatre, dance, visual arts, photograph and literature.

FISO’s main purpose of the project is promoting Norwegian children's literature in Poland and exchanging good experience in scope of stimulating reading among the youngest. Scandinavian literature arouses unusually positive associations and it is characterized by basic and easily accessible language. The scheduled actions are supposed to fulfill the requirement for children's literature, describing and clarifying difficult and important topics like old age, passing or the death of the closest people. Norway has been experiencing the golden age in children's literature recently. Over 700 titles of books for children and youth are published annually in Norway and translated to many languages.

The Project will be carried out for 15 months in Poland and in Norway. As a part of the action there will be two books published and distributed free of charge to public libraries and organizations responsible for bringing up children. A part of the circulation will be distributed to Norwegian libraries by our Norwegian Partner. Our purpose in that is to make the books accessible for Polish families living in Norway. The inauguration of the project will take place during the 3.Baltic Sea Meetings of Illustrators on 26 November 2008 y in the Baltic Sea Culture Centre. A meeting with Hilde Ringen Kommedal the author of Do you think Daddy cries? and exhibition of children's literature are scheduled for the day. A sequence of promotional meetings, workshops and a lot of media activities are planned for 2009. During a meeting in Gdańsk, scheduled for March 2009, you’ll be able to meet Gaute Heivoll the author of Sky behind the house and Kristin Orjasaeter the Director of the Norwegian Institute of Children's Book.

For April there is planned a trip to Oslo for a chosen group who will meet Norwegian artists, people that study how to write children’s literature and the representatives of literary organizations. The purpose of the trip is to get acquainted with Norwegian children’s literature and it’s creators, exchange of experiences in increasing readership, and establishing contacts in Norway for the future cooperation. There will also be held conferences in Poznan and Cracow in October 2009, in Warsaw in November 2009, and the last conference in Gdansk in December 2009 will be combined with the conclusion of the project.

Elements of Stiane Hole's illustrations were used for promotional materials.  

Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway trough the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism.