Reading Buddies as a tool for change

“When I was in the lower grade, I had a difficulty on reading. Unlike my brothers I started reading late. It was a struggle for me to catch up with my colleagues. As a result of this, I had an interest to support my siblings and other children in our village. My brothers and my sister attend in reading camp in our village,” says Giduma Nemera, 16.

Giduma is a grade 8 student. He lives with his family in Nono district, some 123 km from Addis Ababa. He is the first born son and has two brothers and two sisters. He is known for his academic performance in the school. He got the 1st rank from his class. Giduma is also one of Reading Buddies in Nono ADP.

Reading Buddies are children who have good reading and writing skill selected from each household in order to help their younger siblings at home. World Vision is carrying out Reading Buddies system in order to implement literacy boost program more effectively and address more children. In FY 14 and 15, more than 102 children have trained as reading buddies.

After attending the necessary training facilitated by WVE, Giduma is now able to support his siblings. “I was very happy when I was chosen as a Reading Buddy. Using various books that are provided by WVE, I am helping my siblings how to read and write, and taking out questions from that I encourage them to remember each and every letter and word.”

Reading buddies have a great role in maximizing number of children who can read and write at the lower grades.

Giduma and his siblings have reading schedule every day after school and on weekends. Wakuma Nemera, 14 is a brother of Giduma. He is a grade 4 student.

“Identifying letters and reading was very difficult for me. I could not read until I finish grade two. Because of this I used to answer exams by guess. Now I am attending reading camp with my brother and we exercise reading with our older brother returning back home. Our brother Giduma is very clever. He read stories for us and helps us to read like him,” says Wakuma.

Giduma supporting his siblings to read. “I am happy seeing improvements on my siblings,” happily says Giduma.

Reading with his brother Wakuma is able to improve his rank in his class. “My rank in the class was very bad before, now I got forth rank in our class. Studying more I want to take the first rank next year. Studying with our brother at home has helped us to practice and improve our reading skill more. We ask him anything we want without any fear,” he added.

Diriba Nemera, 10, is also the other younger brother of Giduma. “We attend reading camp on weekends and we study with our brother daily. Because of this I have shown progress in my reading skill. I read stories for my colleagues. This year I got the third rank in the class,” happily said Diriba.

Diriba is now a grade 3 student. His favorite story book is “A New Worker”. “There were two bad boys and a good man advised them to stop their bad behavior and they become good people. I learned honesty and integrity from it,” says Diriba.

“I am very happy seeing my children academic improvements. Previously, even though we send our children to school, they only identify some letters and could not read. I and my husband did not have time to help them. But now after they started attending reading camps and start studying with their brother at home, I have seen a great progress on them. All of them take a good rank in their class. We also prepared them their own reading class at home; they are practicing reading without any disturbance,” happily says Bekelu Takele, 28, is a mother of Giduma and his brothers.

Supporting his brothers and sister, Giduma has also got benefited. “I enjoy reading these books. They are designed in a very attractive ways. It is helping me improve my reading habit a lot,” says Giduma.

Literacy boost was started in Nono ADP in FY 14. More than 74 reading camps are found in this area where more than 6000 students are attending now. More than 86 titles of books that are culturally appropriate, entertaining and child friendly books are also distributed in these reading camps.

In cooperation with government, World Vision has planned to incorporate Reading Buddies system at school level.