Qatar Reads, an initiative of Qatar Foundation, recognises the power of reading, and by placing the community at the heart of its activities, has created a national movement.
Al-Jazi al-Henzab, project manager, Qatar Reads, spoke about her own experience of the programme at Qatar Foundation’s ‘I AM QF’ event.
“I have personally seen the power of reading, and how it can change and transform the community,” she said
“I have a seven year old son, and together we are enrolled in the Family Reading Programme. We received the package for January – the theme is Below the Water – which looks at taking care of the environment.
“One of the activities that links to this package is a beach clean-up. We went on a beach clean-up, and then I took him to football training.
“When I picked him up, he said: ‘Mom, I refused to take the bottle I was offered because it was made of plastic’.”
Qatar Reads has reached out to whole community, from students, to teachers, to families – mothers and fathers – to find out what the barriers to reading are, what challenges exist in today’s world.
“We want to change the way people look at reading,” said al-Henzab.
“How do we foster a culture of reading? How do we make into a tool for lifelong learning? We believe everyone shares a responsibility to spread the power of reading. So we asked, we analysed, and we are now using the results as our using this as our direction, as our strategy.”
Through a multi-faceted approach, Qatar Reads aims to achieve its goal by raising awareness of the importance of reading; by collaborating with different entities and bringing them under one umbrella; by creating an enabling environment; and by fostering community participation so that Qatar can fulfil the National Vision 2030.
To ensure it is reaching schools, homes, and communities across the country, Qatar Reads recently announced its new programmes.
These include the School Membership Programme; Read to Lead; Mommy to Be; and it’s community initiatives, QF Leap and its Hospital Reading Programme.
The initiative has also opened up its popular Family Reading Programme, which launched eight months ago, to more members.
From this month on, it will be open to 1,000 families. Each month, participants receive two stories, two activity sheets, and comics that feature the characters Sara and Ali. And each month, Qatar Reads hosts an exclusive event that enables participants to speak to other members about the material and learn from each other.
Fatma al-Kuwari, who attended the Power of Reading talk at ‘I AM QF’, said: “I have six children enrolled in the Family Reading Programme – my nephews and nieces. It’s a beautiful programme. I enrolled them in the English and Arabic, so they are reading books in both languages. They’re 8, 9, and 11 years old, and they love it. Every month we get the books, and they’re happy with the activities.”
Qatar Foundation has launched the national reading campaign, Qatar Reads.
