The “I love my book” campaign

Global Change Makers is a British Council program that aims to connect and provide...

Global Change Makers is a British Council program that aims to connect and provide support to a global network of young and enthusiastic people in their local communities through social activism and volunteer work.

The Yemeni Global Change Makers are a group of very keen and energetic Yemeni youths, whose aim is to raise awareness about pressing Yemeni challenges that have direct impact on the future generations of Yemeni youth and Yemeni society in general.  As they put it themselves: “We are a not-for-profit youth initiative called The Global Change Makers.”

Meeting the youths behind this promising initiative is sufficient to make anyone think that Yemen can have a bright future with lively and young people concerned for their country and who want to make it not just a better place, but they have it in their dreams that their efforts may one day lead to a renaissance of the Yemeni nation and a revival of its past civilization.

These ambitions, of building civilization and a better future, could be framed and hung on walls as beautiful dreams; however, those “Changers,” have already started showing the changes they are talking about.

These young volunteers have launched a campaign called ‘I love my book’ to encourage reading among Yemeni schoolchildren, the future of Yemen. The campaign inaugurated its awareness activities in five big schools in Sana’a by giving books to school libraries and inviting students in a fun way to read books.

They say regarding the campaign: “We are a group of Yemeni youth, who have decided to work for building our beloved homeland. We have observed that many problems were a result of a knowledge drought and the absence of cultural education and weak information and since “reading” is an important foundation in the renaissance of nations and manufacturing of civilisations and solving problems, we decided to make encouraging reading our first initiative for our society. We have named our campaign ‘I love my book.’”

“It is clear that education is of vital importance to Yemen, and in order to benefit from education, you need to be able to read. Indeed you need to be enthusiastic about reading,” said Michael White, British Council Director in Sana’a. “Books can become your passport to another world; they enable you to share dreams with other people and benefit from their wisdom and their experience. Books do indeed enable you to build your life,” White said, addressing the students during the campaign in Khawla School in Sana’a.

The ‘I love my book’ campaign is voluntarily run by the Young Life Changers.  The aim of this project is to plant a seed of love for reading.  It is also to build a generation of readers, to build a conscious generation who can face today’s challenges.

The first step Global Change Makers took was at the annual book fair in Sana’a. Shaima’a al-Qutaibi mentioned that “We have received a very good response from the visitors at the fair.”

They are aiming to educate 300 students about the benefits of loving to read.  A humble response by a member of the team was,  “If we can influence at least one child, we will feel that we have achieved something.”

The team has launched the project in targeted schools, namely Al-Furat School, Baghdad School, Al-Fawz School, Al-Rasheed and Khawlah Bint Al-Azwar School.   They hope to expand their initiative to many more in the near future.

They have provided books and ideas for these school libraries so that they can encourage children to come into the library and pick up a book, a first step towards enticing them to not just read, but to enjoy reading.

I visited these libraries and asked the librarians, “How has the campaign made a difference?” One of the librarians mentioned that the children enjoy the variety of books that the Global Change Makers have provided.  The fact that the books are new and brightly coloured makes a big difference in attracting them to pick up a book.” One of the girls at Al-Khawla school stated that “I love to pick up the cookery books, I love cooking.”  As you can see, the first steps are being taken and the campaign is there to help these school libraries maintain this for the benefit of the future generations.

Twelve students from third to eighth grades were selected from the schools to be trained by campaign members to become reading ambassadors to their schools. An aim to get the children involved physically in maintaining this project as if it is their own.

The campaign is also addressing the needs of children with special needs, a sign of the thorough understanding of how a launch can steer a successful campaign and the needs of the different sectors within the Yemeni children. The Global Change Makers have inaugurated the first ever library in Yemen for the hard of hearing and mute children in February 2010 in the Educational and Vocational Centre for those with Special Needs.

Alawiah al-Saqaf, the campaign supervisor, said, “The inauguration of the library comes as one of our interests in the Global Change Makers team,” emphasizing that they still have many activities aimed at this group of people.  She also confirmed that preparations are under way for opening more libraries in a number of schools in Aden and Hadramout.

The youth are the driving force for a better developed and well educated Yemen.  The nation should be proud of them. It is these urges that should push us to help and support them, because their influence on the community is immense.

The youth are the future generation of Yemen. Their force and enthusiasm can help raise awareness to help tackle many social and economic challenges in Yemen, like Qat, misuse of water, traffic systems, population explosion, women’s education etc.

“Thank you, Global Change Makers,” said Doua’a Sultan, a pupil excited at the thought of fun libraries.