March 28, 2024

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USAID SOMA UMENYE Donates Books to Agati Library in Musanze District

Musanze-On October 26th, USAID Soma Umenye Chief of Party, Stephen Blunden, presented a set of 65 Kinyarwanda reading books to Agati Library in Musanze District.

The donation of the books demonstrates USAID’s commitment to increase availability of a variety of early grade reading materials in Kinyarwanda, with the main purpose to increase the number of students who can read fluently before they end Primary 3 (P3) and who develop a love of reading.

USAID Soma Umenye is providing classroom libraries in all Primary 1, Primary 2 and Primary 3 classrooms in all public and government-aided schools in Rwanda.  The mini-libraries allow young readers to choose a book relevant to their reading ability and to practice their reading.  All of the books have been approved by the Rwanda Education Board.

Patience Rwibutso Karekezi, one of the founders of Agati Library, stated, “We are very happy to receive the books. Our library is still new, six months old, and we are still putting together a strong foundation to be the exemplary library in our District and beyond. We are very sure that the children who visit Agati will love these books very much. They are very beautiful, easy and interesting to read!”

Agati Library opened its doors six months ago and is the first and the only library in Musanze town, in Northern Province of Rwanda.  The library was created by a group of youth aged 22 to 24, with the aim to provide quality books to children and young adults in the region. “We didn’t want our sisters and brothers in the district to grow without a place to read a book as we did when we were young. All six of us loved to read, but we couldn’t find a book store or library nearby. We are very grateful that people and projects like USAID Soma Umenye are supporting our initiative. This helps us to grow,” said Rigobert Uwiduhaye, one of the six founders, an artist-painter who mainly creates arts to raise the library funds.

USAID Soma Umenye (“Read and Know”) is a partnership between USAID and REB targeting every public and government-aided primary school in Rwanda with the goal of improving the reading performance of at least one million students. USAID Soma Umenye works directly with REB to develop textbooks and teacher’s guides, to provide teacher training, and to implement effective assessment to achieve this essential goal of improved reading.

USAID Soma Umenye Chief of Party, Stephen Blunden, congratulated the founders of Agati Library for the initiative and energy they have shown to establish the Agati Library for the people of Musanze. He promised, “USAID Soma Umenye will continue to support and equip young Rwandan learners with a variety of ‘levelled’ P1, P2 and P3 Kinyarwanda books to read.  Today we’ve provided Agati Library with a set of 65 P1 readers suitable for our youngest readers.  We will also provide P2 and P3 readers in the coming months.’

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