DUBAI // Siblings Aaditya and Aditi Gandhi are inviting children from the neighbourhood into their home to share their love of reading.
Aaditya, 10, and his sister Aditi, 9, are keen to be part of the UAE’s Year of Reading initiative launched by President Sheikh Khalifa, and have opened a library in their home.
“We came up with the idea of starting up a free library at our home to share our love of reading with other children and help to increase knowledge, imagination and creativity,” said the Grade 6 and Grade 4 pupils, who are reading ambassadors at their schools.
They opened their library in the living room of their parents’ two-bedroom house in Mankhool. With 400 books of different genres in English, Arabic, Hindi and French, it has something for every taste. About 30 children from the neighbourhood are members of the library.
“We have collected most of these books over the years and the members donate books to add to the collection. We encourage members to share books as well,” Aaditya said.
Aditi said: “It is completely free and open to all children. We encourage them to spread the word and bring along their friends.”
Their mother, Puja, said her children had been fond of books from an early age.
“They used to spend their pocket money on books and asked for books as gifts for special occasions. They love to go to book fairs, creative writing workshops, literature festivals, literary events and meet authors to learn from their experience.
“When they shared the idea of creating a library from their personal collection of books, we felt so proud and fully supported and encouraged them.”
Puja said there was a need for more children’s libraries in Dubai. “The number of children’s libraries has certainly gone down because of the increasing number of children who spend their time using the internet and playing video games.
“Although the internet is a wonderful source of information and has many advantages, it certainly cannot replace the joy of reading a good book,” the 38-year-old, said.
Aaditya believes children have to improve their reading habits at school. “We feel schoolchildren in this part of the world should read more books. Awareness is slowly growing and since 2016 was declared the Year of Reading, we have witnessed many initiatives,” he said.
“Schools are also launching many projects and competitions related to reading for children, which is greatly motivating them to read more books.”
akhaishgi@thenational.ae
