(Re)Imagining a world without books

Growing up, my parents read to me constantly. My mom and my dad were ‘readers’ and our shelves were teeming with books. As an adult, I fondly remember my favourite childhood story book, and (yes) have it memorised to this day. (It’s called Each Peach Pear Plum by Allan and Janet Ahlberg, and if you ask me nicely, someday I will recite it to you.)

As I grew up, I read all the time. Books were where my imagination soared, and provided fertile fields for learning about the world and about how language worked. Years later, I ended up working in communications, which, in retrospect, makes a lot of sense.

This is why I find it so difficult to comprehend what growing up in a world without books would be like. In fact, it makes me emotional to think about a world without characters like Clifford the Big Red Dog or Sherlock Holmes. But the reality for millions of children is just that: there are no books written for them in the language they learn at home.

Last June, I traveled to Burundi with a small film crew to document World Vision’s literacy programming – namely though Literacy Boost[1]. Among the many aspects of this programme is the unique goal to create access to new books – or the books themselves when existing story books are unavailable – in every community where Literacy Boost is implemented.

Children access the books through after school reading camps and clubs led by local volunteers. Each reading camp is equipped with a book bank – a portable library full of colourful story books – that reflect children’s values, traditions, language and culture.

Mugisha’s story touched my heart as I reminisced about my own son learning to read.

Months before the trip, I had heard of a young boy named Mugisha who lived in the area of Burundi that I would later visit. At only 4-years-old, he had participated in a Literacy Boost reading camp, and had begun to learn to read. Mugisha’s story touched my heart as I reminisced about my own son learning to read.

I finally had the pleasure of meeting Mugisha at a reading camp while filming scenes for our video. He shyly shook my hand, and wouldn’t speak much. But when the reading camp began, he became a different person. He was not only participating in the reading camp – he was now a facilitator!

He stood in front of the children, reading parts of a story aloud. He then asked the group of children a question about the story. Every time Mugisha asked a question, the children would jump up to answer it, waving dramatically at him to pick them to answer. The whole scene was brilliant!

Visiting reading camps in Burundi, and watching young children who hadn’t had access to books in the past read stories together with such excitement, made me realise just how important programmes like this are. Books reflect who we are as people – our similarities and our differences. Every culture has important stories to share. While books alone can’t solve the problem of illiteracy, without them it’s an impossible problem to solve.

Related links

• Literacy Boost: Strengthening children's literacy skills in Burundi
• Community literacy education in Burundi helps a grandmother teach her granddaughter to read
• Local language teaching and learning materials