Community Reading Days

It is 6 am and we are already on the road to Hoima, a district in the west of Uganda. A little bumps on the road but this didn’t kill the excitement the enjuba team of 5 had to read with the children from Kibanjwa Primary School. As we travelled, we bore in mind that this is not a usual reading day. We chose this particular one as our D.E.A.R Day to celebrate reading as a habit. You must wonder what D.E.A.R Day is. D.E.A.R Day stands for Drop Everything And Read Day and is a nationally recognized day in Uganda on the annual school calendar under Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports. It exists to promote the continued growth of a positive reading culture in Uganda.

We arrived at around 9am to the school and the children started to run out their classes to sit under a big tree shed with huge smiles awaiting the day’s activities. The program kicked off with a prayer and warm greetings from the head teacher of Kibanjwa Primary School. The enjuba team of 5 led by the Program Director, William Mukisa introduced the team. We were joined by a group of enthusiastic teachers who introduced themselves as well.  After the introductions, William went ahead to share about D.E.A.R Day and engaged the children in a fun spelling body game. This got the children so excited and hyped for what we had in stock for them. After that dose of fun, we then went into small break-out sessions with the children according class and age and asked each teacher to join a session.

 In the breakout sessions, we carried out fun-filled reading activities like the spelling bingo and read alouds. One of our team members, Lizza Marie Kawooya took led on conducting the spelling bingo in the sessions and the rest, the read aloud sessions. We were amazed by how the teachers were so energetic throughout the sessions. As they read along with the children, they in-cooperated role play from the story lines of the books. One could tell how much fun the children had as they were doing it. By the end of the read aloud sessions, you could hear the children call themselves by the names of the characters in the books; like Justice, Sharon and Mtoto. Seeing children enjoy the characters in the books because they found them relatable was the highlight of our day. This showed the children to imagine reading as a way of life. And because of this, we would like to say thank you for your continued support towards our project.

 This year, D.E.A.R Day is being celebrated nationally on the 1^st of July, 2022 and different partners including; Peace Corps, Ministry of Education and Sports, Kampala City Council Authority, Rotary International, National Book Trust, National Libraries of Uganda, Deaf Link Uganda, Read For Life, Reading Association of Uganda, Oasis Book Project, Old Mzee Books, One School At A Time, Red Earth Foundation, Knowledge For Children, among other education advocates have come together to celebrate the day, disseminate information and reading materials in different locations of the country.

This D.E.A.R Day, you too can celebrate the day by dedicating 30 minutes to read by yourself or to a group of children in your community. You can also donate to this project by buying for 5 children in Uganda beautifully illustrated and culturally relevant storybooks of their own and help them imagine reading as a way of life.