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Elementary School Book Club Encourages Reading

Senegal Kaolack Book Club For Elementary School Students

By Mohamed Fall, YES 2014-2015, Senegal, hosted by ACES in Davenport, Iowa

Children are the future of the world. But, for them to achieve great things, they need to receive a good quality education. As an exchange student in the U.S. two years ago, I had the idea to collect books for the students in my city. With the help of my YES program local coordinator, we were able to reach a lot of people and collected 42 books in French.

Back home in Kaolack, with the help of other alumni and my school’s administration, I was able to use these books to teach students about the importance of reading and how beneficial it can be for them. On February 15, 2017, we started a Book Club that meets every Wednesday. Twenty students between the ages of 8 and 12 participate each week. Since there are more students than the available number of books, we have a different group of children every week. I run the sessions with the help of other alumni and one teacher. The students spend one hour reading and learning new vocabulary words. They also discuss what they read and the lessons they learn from the books. We organize other activities and fun games, too, which helps to motivate the kids.

The first session went great! The kids were really happy and looking forward to having other sessions. Participants commented that the club helped them to “[enrich] my vocabulary," "discover new things,"and "get the importance of reading.” It was really encouraging to hear that and it gave us more strength and courage to continue. It also shows that our goal is being achieved. But this is just a first step, because this is expected to be a long-term project, with other steps in the future including acquiring more books and building a bookcase to store the books and make them accessible to students at all times. And why not even build a whole library in the further future...?


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