Community Reading Days

It is a bright sunny Friday morning with a vibrant team of 6 ready to read and have fun with the children in the slums of Kamwokya. This time, we were not alone. We worked together with one of our last mile partners, Chusa Community Library which serves slum children and adolescents through creative arts activities and was also joined by an energetic team from Stanbic Bank. This team from Stanbic Bank was so excited to be part of the reading day that they came bearing gifts for the children in form of educational materials and some of the gifts included; exercise books and pencils for each child.

At about 11 am, the program began. All the children gathered under a temporary shade at the host school and the team introductions commenced. The enjuba team led by Mr. William Mukisa went on to share their names and why they were there. The Chusa and Stanbic Bank teams did the same. One couldn’t help but notice how eager the children were to start with the activities. With huge smiles on their beautiful faces, they spelled the word “enjuba” with their bodies as an icebreaker activity led by Lizza Marie Kawooya. This just made them more exhilarated by the activities. We then quickly divided the children into break-out groups according to age and class. Each break-out group had a team member from enjuba, Stanbic Bank, and Chusa Community Library.

A total of four break-out groups were created and each had a different fun-filled activity including the spelling bingo games and read-aloud sessions. For most of these children, these were their first storybooks. One could notice the way the children were staring into the books and were mesmerized by the drawings and stories in the books. As the read-aloud session went along, the team members went along to encourage the children to share the values they are learning from the books. In the group that was reading the book titled “Do you like Grasshoppers and Chapatti?” the children shared that they learned the value of sharing and helping people no matter what their background was. The children continued to share how they share their things with friends in class and at home. As a team, we were very impressed. As soon as the fun-filled activities were done, the very thrilled children each received a storybook they could read at home and with friends at home and in their community. This is all possible because of your continued support of this project and we say thank you!

The Stanbic Bank team also gave out scholastic materials to the children which can help them through their school days. 

The books surely drew huge smiles on the children’s faces as we saw them share their lessons learned from the books with each other and make reading a way of life.