DUBAI - Nearly 100,000 school students in the UAE have signed up for the Dubai Cares Read-a-thon, two days after the Million Book Challenge was officially launched in Dubai.
The daunting challenge, which will see students read a go through one million books in two weeks, is part of the Dubai Cares 2008 campaign, launched in the presence and under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice- President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Sunday.
“Schools have signed up over a 100,000 students so far for the Million Book Challenge. The focus is on the next two weeks to get kids in Dubai to read the books,” said John Wood, founder and CEO of Room to Read, an organisation that helps build educational infrastructure including schools and libraries around the world.
The Read-a-thon, focussing on students aged between three and 14, began at noon on October 30 and will end at noon on November 16.
“Parents are reading books to their children at nights. Schools have also come up with Read All Day weekends and there is a lot of excitement among them,” said Wood adding that the initiative had been received positively by parents, schools and teachers.
Students can read books in any language from the school libraries, from home or even purchase new books. For each book read, Dubai Cares will buy a new book and donate it to children in need around the world.
Room to Read is helping in the distribution of the million books, in English and regional languages, to schools and well-run libraries in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
“We want to ensure that the million books find a good home. Over 800 million illiterate people in the world and a majority of them are close to this part of the world,” added John. “The Million Book Challenge is a fine example to the world about how to think big and how a global city should practise global citizenship.”
Dr Hanif Hassan, Minister of Education, noted that when the Dubai Cares project was launched by Shaikh Mohammed, it was intended to educate a million children.
He said it has helped increase the reach of the project to four million children of different nationalities.
Dr Hassan said: “The initiative was praised across the world and this makes us all Emiratis very proud. The decision to educate four million children all over the world is no easy task.”
He added: “Shaikh Mohammed is keen to alleviate poverty and improve the standards of living, irrespective of religion or
nationality.
Dr Abdulla Al Karam, director general and chairman of the Board of Directors at KHDA, said: “Reading is at the root of everything. Storytelling has always been a way of passing on information from generation to generation.”
The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, on Monday, announced its support of Dubai Cares One Million Book Challenge, pledging 100,000 books to children in need across the Arab world.
Preeti Kannan