Last year, several organisations came up with concepts on how reading culture can be improved in the country. One such initiative took place recently as different stakeholders in education for children converged at Classic Hotel in Kigali to brainstorm how young children can be encouraged to take reading seriously, not only as a matter of passing exams but also do it as a recreational activity to improve their language competency.

The Rwanda Children’s Book Forum (RCBF), a project under Save the Children Organisation brought together publishers, the National Library, head teachers, journalists and other stakeholders in the education centre and discussed how Rwanda can improve reading culture among the young ones.

RCBF aims at, among other objectives, encourage publication of quality books for children, particularly in Kinyarwanda, raise awareness on importance of children literature and encourage parents to purchase reading books for their children.

Several participants during the one-day workshop castigated parents, saying they are not acting their part as role models to encourage their children embrace recreational reading as part of efforts to improve reading culture in the country.

At the same time, the National Library said that they have embarked on a number of projects to ensure that reading culture among children is enhanced. Speaking during this first National Assembly that also officially marked the launch of Rwanda Children Books Forum, Olivier Oleg Karembezi, the outreach and extension coordinator, American Corner of National Library said that the institution has been at the forefront of encouraging reading culture among the young and they have embarked on different projects to ensure this noble project is sustained.

He said among the numerous projects they are currently doing is to establish community libraries around the country so that children can have easy access to reading materials.

As part of their ambitious project, he said: "The government has committed itself to establishing in each district Class A libraries, in each sector Class B libraries and in each cell reading rooms to cater for children who need to read as part of recreational activity to improve their linguistic competency.”

Karembezi added that each community library is going to be linked to the Internet and they are partnering with MTN to ensure this bears fruits. "The community libraries are going to be places children will have access to e-books which have become part and parcel of today learning process. They are going to supplement what teachers are doing at schools.”

Mutesi Gasana of Arise Rwanda, an organisation that aims to change lives in Rwanda through education and community development, said children in rural areas have no access to reading facilities and concerted efforts should be made to ensure that this disparity is addressed.

She at the same time added that the management of books in the schools is important and it’s incumbent upon head teachers to ensure that these reading materials are safely kept.

"Sometimes we make donations to schools but after some period when we go to follow up, you discover that they are either lost or are in bad conditions. This dampens the spirits of organisations that want to donate reading materials,” she added.

Sandrine Umutoni, the project manager Littafcar, a project of Ishyo Art Centre, said they have embarked on various projects to ensure that reading materials for children reach their target audience in rural areas.

"One of them is the reading caravan in which we have managed to tour a number of districts. The children are able to read from our libraries found in these caravans and this makes them inculcate deep reading culture when they come in contact with different books written in different languages,” she said.

On her part, Agnes Gyr-Ukunda, publisher with Bakame editions, said that more children books in Kinyarwanda should be availed so that kids at the young age shouldn’t have problems harnessing their reading.

"Writers should come up publications that translate our rich oral literature to written literature in our local languages,” she said, and observed that today, kids don’t have time to listen to oral tales but it can only be perfect when such social and cultural heritage are preserved in books for posterity.

Terry Van den Akker, an art education teacher from Holland and education adviser, Save the Children in her presentation showed the importance of illustrative children books and said her organisation is partnering with Rwanda artists and publishers to make such books in Kinyarwanda. "We’re going to distribute these books to various schools to ensure that kids have access to illustrative books since picture books deeply enhance their reading habits.”