It is believed that one of the best ways to get children into the reading habit is to read out to them. Keeping this in mind, Buguri, a community library initiative of Hasiru Dala, will organise a month-long Read Aloud Festival in February.
The initiative, started two years ago, involves providing children from underprivileged backgrounds access to books.
The festival, which coincides with the World Read Aloud Day on February 1, will see Buguri volunteers and other partner organisations reaching out to children in government schools and slums to hold reading sessions.
“In the two years of running the Buguri library initiative, we found that children picked up languages faster and developed reading skills when they were read out to. With the festival, we want to reach out to more children who do not have the opportunity of being read out to,” said Lakshmi Karunakaran, who manages the library programme.
The Buguri team has partnered with a few organisations and trained their staff to conduct these sessions. “We will cover 30 government schools in Bengaluru and five in Mysuru in February. Apart from this, volunteers will also go to communities in slum areas to read out to the children there,” Ms. Karunakaran said. On February 10, a read aloud session will be held at Freedom Park for children of waste pickers, domestic workers, with special needs and those from orphanages.
“Around 200 children will participate. Our volunteers will read out to them, give them access to books and conduct craft activities and theatre games. It will be a full-day session,” she said.
Hasiru Dala is also calling citizens through social media to join the movement. “They can conduct these read aloud sessions in parks, neighbourhoods, and even their apartment complexes. We want more children to engage with books through this festival,” Ms. Karunakaran added.