September 8 is the international literacy day designated by Unesco to raise public awareness about the importance and benefits of reading. Although it took us a while to recognise and join the rest of the world in marking and cerebrating this important day, last week Rwanda observed the day.

Better late than never! We hope that this important festival becomes an annual event with the same vigour that we saw last week. In this article I will examine the role that a reading culture may play not only in nurturing a generation of free and creative thinkers in Rwanda, but as an important tool in the country’s socio- economic and political transformation.

To begin with, literacy facilitates people to communicate information, stories and events to each other. So, when we talk of power of literacy, it’s more than understanding the vocabulary and syntax of a written message. Critical reading means that the reader understands the purpose of the message and appreciates the context that it was conceived in. Literacy without critical understanding of the message is nothing more than noise in our ears. In this case teachers have the responsibility to help children/students understand that biases and perceptions of the world are fundamental to the messages that are expressed. Such biases need to be identified and examined for their impact on the individual, society and the world at large.

In early literacy programmes, children should be exposed to moral lessons through stories that are intended to guide and empower them to live successful and productive lives. They should be given short informational books that tell them the science and history of the society and the world around them. In addition, more often books for young readers are accompanied by vital illustrations that often say more than the words on the page. Exposing the child to the power of literacy at the earliest age plays a vital role in the choices they make later in their adult life.

Accordingly, teachers and publishers should control the sort of literature our children get exposed to. For example, in the Rwandan context, we should focus on children’s literature that addresses topics such as peace, unity, reconciliation, gender equity, Ndi umunyarwanda, self-reliance, drug abuse, environmental conservation, reproductive health education, HIV/Aids, and other issues that shape the youth’s mindset. If such approach is used and reading emphasised, it will equip young people with life skills necessary to help them cope with their body changes as adolescents as well as skills to resist peer pressure.

The obvious benefits are that this helps children to make informed decisions when they are still young and later when they are adults, consequently making them responsible citizens. To illustrate this point further, I will focus on how reading can help in promoting HIV/Aids awareness campaign amongst the young generation. In our culture, open discussion about sex and sexual related activities remain a taboo. Parents hardly talk about sexual matters with their children while religious leaders also tend to talk about HIV/Aids as retribution for sin rather than as a health and social matter that everyone faces.

In addition, the stigma surrounding HIV/Aids effectively blocks communication with young people. It is not surprising, therefore, that some studies have shown that parents and religious leaders are the least important sources of information for the young people (AMREF, technical briefing paper – September, 2004 – A Better Fate for Young People). As a teacher I have also held discussions with my students on the one hand, and talked to parents about their role in educating their children on HIV/Aids, on the other hand. Drawing from my experience with both students and parents, the truth is that it’s hard for the majority of parents to discuss with their children facts on HIV/Aids in an open and straightforward manner. The main source of information for our children is their friends and peers, who might mislead them. If this is true, then some strategies have to be in place to offset this crucial information gap that exists amongst our children.

As such, one of the probable models of disseminating information on HIV/Aids to our children would be through the use of books, which can only be effective if the culture of reading is promoted in our homes and schools. The moral lessons learnt in a given book/text could equip the reader, especially the youth, with important life skills to make positive choices and informed decisions in their lives. Indeed a strong reading culture would contribute to healthy behaviour and help our children resist peer pressure.

To be continued next week.

mugisteve@yahoo.com