Manama: A National Reading Campaign, with a special focus on children, will be launched this week by Qatar Foundation (QF).
The campaign seeks to unite the individual literacy efforts of relevant organisations countrywide to create one, consolidated platform that will enable entities to collectively promote a passion for reading throughout the entire community, organisers said.
The nationwide initiative aims to make books readily accessible to Qatar’s residents.
“By incubating a deep-rooted culture of self-learning, Qatar Foundation is working to inspire a passion for innovation,” Fahd Sa’ad Al Qahtani, President of Community Development, Qatar Foundation, said.
“Reading is the primary building block for learning, as it helps to encourage a range of soft skills in young minds, including learning, understanding and creativity.
Extensive research has revealed that reading aloud is the single most important activity for improving language and literacy skills and, among other things, this initiative will seek to promote this activity.
Ultimately, we hope that this campaign will contribute to the continuing development of this nation,” he added.
The first stage of the year-round National Reading Campaign, focusing on schoolchildren across Qatar, is already underway.
Regular reading sessions are taking place at many local schools, in coordination with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, to help engender a love of reading from an early age.
A dynamic schedule of activities and events will be launched in the months ahead, each of them designed to demonstrate that reading can be fun, exciting and informative.
These include the Reading Truck, a dedicated vehicle that will operate as a mobile library, Vending Machines that will be circulated around schools and allow children to exchange up to ten books at a time, and interactive, immersive story telling sessions and nationwide competitions.
More activities and events positioned to make reading an essential part of the nation’s daily routine will be announced as the initiative gathers momentum.
As the National Reading Campaign evolves to include the wider public in its subsequent phases, the initiative will provide abundant reading and storytelling opportunities, in collaboration with local stakeholders and partners, designed to involve the whole family. These include pop-up stores and public activities which will encourage parents, teachers and institutions to be actively involved in promoting a book-loving culture in Qatar.
The campaign is part of QF’s commitment to incubating self-learning among all residents of Qatar.
Other initiatives launched by QF to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge for all include the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) and Qatar National Library.
