The Fair Saturday awards were created in Bilbao in 2017. Their objective is clear: ‘to recognise, at an international level, the initiatives of inspiring individuals and organisations that have demonstrated their ability to generate social impact through art and culture… to promote new models of action with the mission of generating more inclusive, fair and sustainable growth’.
In 2022, I attended the presentation of these very special awards, and I had the opportunity to meet one of the winners first-hand: Rana Dajani, founder of We Love Reading.
Rana Dajani (Amman, Jordan) is one of the most influential scientists in the Islamic world, and her work is inspiring and empowering communities (especially young people and women) around the world through reading.
Rana Dajani, has developed “an innovative model that provides a practical, cost efficient, sustainable, grassroots approach that involves youth, women and men and the community to increase reading levels among children by focusing on the read aloud experience to plant the love of reading. This program constitutes training to local youth, women and men to hold reading sessions in public spaces where books are routinely read aloud to children in their native language in their neighborhoods”.
Thanks to the Jacobs Foundation award Rana Dajani planned to upgrade the online training course on how to start We Love Reading in communities by introducing the latest technology and pedagogical tools and offering additional languages. Not in vein, Jacobs Foundation ask their awarded to provide solutions for positive child and youth development at low cost, which are sustainable and can be easily implemented on the spot.
We Love Reading is a civil society organization that works in 65 countries “to create change makers through reading by changing mindsets. The majority are women, who through reading discover their inner potential, becoming leaders in their own right as they begin to develop solutions for the sustainable development goals”.
I invite you to watch the following video in which Rana explains with examples what We Love Reading accomplishes in these times of despair for many people.