Can you remember your favorite childhood book? The one you made your mom or dad read to you every night? For children around the world, the love of reading begins with a great book in their hands.
There are no children’s books in Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement. Kids can’t instantly be transported into imaginary worlds, learn about people and places a continent away, or share a special moment with loved ones as they fall asleep.
So, what needed to happen was pretty simple – let’s get these kids books!
We filled backpacks with books, so that during house visits our volunteers could pass them out, creating a sort of traveling library. And when we sat down to read with kids, their eyes lit up – they crowded around.
“What’s a dinosaur?” asked one child, reading a book about the ancient creatures. They had never heard of such a thing before. So our team got to explaining what exactly a dinosaur was. They were already learning.
At one house, when the team got into the car to leave a little boy ran after the car, crying – he wanted to keep reading. “Don’t worry,” said our volunteers, “we’ll be back.” Happy with that answer, he ran off to play. He’ll get to read again tomorrow.
