Ever imagined travelling without boarding a plane and living an adventurous life? Or being able to wander into someone’s thoughts as many of us wish to? Or simply finding your way throughout a conversation by improving your vocabulary, these and many more are among the beneficial package accessed by reading a book. “The feeling of flipping through pages and their musky smell while being emotionally consumed as the mind is driven into vivid imaginations has been my reading experience since the first time my father handed me a book to read when I was 7 years old,” says Benigne Rutayisire, a bookworm as she describes herself, and resident of Gatenga Sector. Of the importance of reading, Benigne says that she has been able to relate to people’s feelings, thoughts and ways of life, around the world whether in the modern age or ancient history, hence, having a greater perspective on life, “As a reader you grow just as your passion grows, you have to go to that thing that adds value.” The reading culture is dependent on early exposure of books in families, schools and other clubs, this paves a way for reading mentality. A Save the Children 2015 study in Rwanda found that only nine per cent of parents read a story to a child while 51 per cent thought that their child’s schooling was the sole responsibility of a teacher and only two per cent of surveyed households reported having Kinyarwanda storybooks for children, out of whom three per cent of surveyed children reported to have read a Kinyarwanda storybook, yet 75 per cent of parents reported that storybooks are not available to children. This, however, changed course at the implementation of USAID Mureke Dusome (Let’s read) project, after distributing 430,494 storybooks in established 5,424 reading clubs across government-aided schools in all 30 districts. “The proportion of parents providing support to children’s literacy learning at home has increased from 59 per cent to 78 per cent between 2016 and 2020 while that of parents who thought schools are entirely responsible to teach their children decreased from 51 per cent to 28 per cent mid-term,” says Solange Umwizerwa, Chief of Party, Mureke Dusome. According to Dominique Alonga, founder of Imagine We Rwanda, a publishing house, there is an increase in readers aged between 6 months and 6 years and a decline of readers between 15 years and above. “You can spend a certain amount in entertainment activities but also make a budget to invest in your mind,” she notes. Asked why his peers seem reluctant to read, Andrew Munezero (not real names), student at Adventist University of Central Africa, said it’s because they hardly find content they can relate with. If Rwandan people were more represented in storytelling, they would gradually and happily read these materials. “We owe them good content, let them give us feedback, that way we can have thoughtful conversations to better our society,” says Caroline Numuhire, a Rwandan author. Hard copy versus E-Books ‘In attempt to adapt with the modern shift, reading E-books wouldn’t be a big deal but personally, reading while annotating, folding a page here and there gives me a record every time I want to do a reflection as opposed to some E-books that do not offer such options. I believe reading should be based on hard copies but the trends are that we allow younger ones to read E-books, however, are they reading?” Silver Busobozi, a teacher at Green Hills Academy and lecturer at Akilah Institute points out. Beyond the physical aspect, there is an emotional interaction with print material. Many people spend long hours on screens which eventually has an effect on their eyes, reading hard copy becomes a relaxing remedy, says Numuhire.
