Who we are

We are a non-profit social enterprise established to support education and learning among Tanzanian children and teens through reading.

A young Tanzanian needs more inspiration to engage in critical reading than the typical educational system can provide. Following a recent World Bank report, a rising proportion of children under the age of ten are having difficulty reading and comprehending simple texts. The difficulty of gaining access to reading materials that speak close to the realities of people in Tanzania poses a hurdle to cultivating a reading culture in the country. It is critical that we, as Tanzanians and friends of Tanzania, take an active role in addressing this challenge.

Our Aim

We want to foster young people’s voice, choice, and new experiences through reading. The readings can be imaginative and/or realistic; they can also be illuminating oral histories from community practises and experiences, with a goal of encouraging creativity and raising confident youth who are eager to question and engage with different issues that have a positive impact on their own growth as individuals and the development of the societies in which they live.

We aim to provide children and young adults with the gift of reading so they can be part of imagining, making, and changing the world. It is crucial that youth themselves engage in action, listen, and dialogue with others.

Why reading is important

Engagement with fiction, biographical or autobiographical stories, community work, entrepreneurship, or science is important for participants to relate to both theory and practice, to imaginative stories and possibilities, and to learn from other people’s successes, hardships, and methods. Engaging with books and stories is a way to exercise our memory; it expands our worldview and pushes our thinking.

Reading books and listening to stories about fictional as well as real-life characters is important to engage with scenarios that are different from our own, to learn from others, and to also see ourselves in the literature and stories. It may also encourage youth to train and test their articulation as storytellers and changemakers.

As reading is incorporated into daily life, it fosters education, entertainment, and our way of being in the world. Also, it fosters young involvement and creativity—in this case, via an alternative, engaging educational event. 

Reading also enhances communication skills, self-confidence, and academic performance.