Reading is essential to the development of a child's personality, imagination, and communication skills. Children must learn to love and enjoy reading to reap its benefits. Children of the Arab world and Jordan in particular are not readers. A survey conducted by Arabia News estimated that the average number of pages read in the Middle East is only half a page a year, while in the United States it is 11 books a year. We Love Reading has developed an innovative model to solve this problem in a sustainable and cost efficient way. Our model is comprised of training individuals from the neighborhoods in which they are located to read aloud to children 4 to 10 years old, utilizing age-appropriate reading material. Significant numbers of adults trained in proper read aloud techniques will lead to the creation of informal and sustainable networks of model readers that will inspire children and the communities in which they are raised to read and learn more.
We Love Reading aims to positively impact children throughout Jordan and the Arab world by creating a generation of children that love, enjoy, and respect books through the establishment of a library in every neighborhood in the Arab world.
We Love Reading has trained 380 storytellers, all of them women. As a result, 80 libraries have been established in various areas of Jordan reaching out to more than 4,000 children, 60% of whom are girls. These children have learned to read for pleasure. Our model has spread to Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Tunis. We Love Reading has received the Arab World Social innovator Award from Synergos and has partnered with Mercy Corps, Ruwwad (ARAMEX) and Injaz-Jordan.
We Love Reading commits through the Clinton Global Initiative to establish over the next five years 100 libraries throughout Jordan to actively encourage each community to share in the experience of reading. These libraries will help foster a lifelong enthusiasm for reading and acquiring new knowledge among children in a sustainable and cost efficient way. It costs less than 50 dollars to make a child read forever.
