•17,000 books given to city schools

KIGALI - Kigali City Council is throwing its weight behind a new campaign to encourage children in the city to read, council officials said yesterday at a function to hand over a consignment of over 17,000 books to thirty primary schools in the City.

In an effort to cultivate the culture of readingamong young children of school going age, KCC  in collaboration with Edition Bakame, a local publishers’ association, have introduced a campaign dubbed ‘mobile library’

"We need to cultivate the culture of reading in these young children so they can be at the same level with others in East Africa and beyond,” the Vice-Mayor in charge of Social Affairs, Jeanne d’Arc Gakuba Gakuba said.

During this campaign, primary schools will be given story books which their pupils will use for a period of one month, after which they will be given to another school.

Gakuba explained that the city council, came up with the programme as a way of enhancing  the children’s reading skills to make them more competitive.

She added that the children must be encouraged to read because it is through this that they will develop research abilities in further studies.

The books valued at over Rwf10m are to be distributed to thirty primary schools in Kigali and after one month will be taken to neighbouring schools. Editions Bakame, will oversee the rotation of the books.

Speaking at the handover ceremony, the Director of Editions Bakame, Speciose Karangwa, urged the teachers to lead by example.

"You cannot give what you don’t have,” she cautioned. "You should also embrace the culture of reading to equip yourselves before you start teaching the children; it is through this that you will be able to encourage them,” she advised.

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