For the past six months, more than 300 children have been participating in a national reading campaign called “Read for the Nation” under the patronage of self-development expert Sulafa Adel Batragi, who launched in Jeddah a campaign to develop the reading habit in children with the cooperation of several private sector companies, teachers, and Arab authors. “Developing the habit of reading and promoting good reading skills among the nation's children is the responsibility of society and its leaders, so we need the help of both the public and private sectors in addition to bookshops and libraries,” said Batragi. She explained that the six-month reading program contains several groups of children and their leaders. Each group reads a feature story and then the group leader discusses the meaning of what has been read in detail to make sure that the children understand the story. “After finishing the story, the group discusses and criticizes it with the participation of the author in order to enrich the children's ability to read, think, and discuss,” Batragi said. Such steps will develop children's skills so that they will be able to use their ideas to create their own projects in the future. “Our program helps refine the child's mental processes and develops social skills and the ability to think,” she said. “In addition it develops leadership ability, enhances the relationship between the child and the book, and motivates the child to discover new information and learn about the other cultures,” she added. The reading campaign targets boys and girls from four to 11 years of age, with specially trained teachers on hand to help the children. Batragi plans to make the program available to all schools in Jeddah, and hopes to find support from non-profit institutions in order spread the reading culture among the largest number of children.
