Singer Thomas Muyombo, aka Tom Close has urged students to embrace reading as a culture.

The R&B singer made the remarks during a literacy promotion event organised by Save the Children at the national library in Kacyiru, on Tuesday. At the event, Tom Close read out to over 30 students from different schools around Kigali using Kinyarwanda books.

The singer, who doubles as a doctor at the National Centre for Blood Transfusion (NCBT), advised learners across the country to fully embrace the culture of reading.

"Every book has significance, whether it contains text or illustrations. The message can only be internalised when one reads carefully,” Tom Close said.

The Komeza utsinde star, who is also a publisher with two Kinyarwanda books; Inkomoko yubwanwa N’ inzana and Gapapayi Ninkoko to his name, noted that creativity and knowledge comes from those who make reading a hobby.

"We go to school to obtain knowledge but developing new ideas requires more immense reading,” he added.Organised under the theme, ‘Open the book open the world’, to promote literacy, the 30-day campaign will involve visits to different schools.

Cathy Mercy, the Education signature programme coordinator at Save the Children noted that using renowned people in the campaign will attract young readers.

"Children relate society with what they read and within these campaigns, using renowned people contributes to drawing more inspiration in young readers,” Mercy said.

Meanwhile, students who graced the reading session were all praises for the reading campaign.

Witness Mukanoheri from GS Kacyiru hopes to become a better writer after participating in the activities.

"I hope to improve my language and writing skills because we have been taken through the different designs of books,” Mukanoheri said.

Centaime Uwimana, 12, from Ecole Primarie de Kacyiru said that from the session she learnt that writing good stories requires creativity and relating it to the environment.

For Kevin Umukundwa, a student from Little Gems Academy, she will start reading as many books as possible to improve her language.

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