Maktaba Qatar - Experience the Joy of Reading!

Four years ago three anxious mothers in Qatar with young children were desperately searching for programs that exposed their children to the joy of reading and encouraged them to fall in love with books. They were also very conscious of the fact that there was very limited access to age appropriate reading materials, particularly in Arabic, in Qatar.

Today, Sarah Champa Al Dafa, Hind AbdulRahman al Khulaifi and and Mohana Rajakumar are the proud Co Founders of "Maktaba" (the meaning of the Arabic word Maktaba is Library) a non profit organization that offers free, regularly scheduled Story Time Sessions at various locations in Doha and aims towards a Children's Lending Library at their own location very soon, offering a variety of reading materials and learning related programs.

Contact details of Maktaba can be found at www.rush360.qa by searching for "Maktaba"

Maktaba is very fortunate to partner with RasGas. Their support allowed Maktaba to launch a website and Maktaba Mobile Application. 

 "Both allow us to bring books and reading tips to children and parents. We have had over 10,000 downloads of Maktaba Mobile in 43 countries; the numbers are increasing," says Sarah.

Sarah is extremely thankful to RasGas and says: "Their generous support allows us to continue to grow and expand our programs year by year and benefit a larger audience of Qatar"

"Our first partners and story time hosts were (and still are) Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Katara Arts Center. 3 years later, our regular events at both locations are very popular." recalls Sarah.

In June 2014 Maktaba partnered with Kalimat Publishing based in the UAE to bring Story Time with Baba to WH Smith. This event focused on encouraging families, especially fathers, to get involved with reading to their children.

What does Maktaba offer?

• Regular Scheduled Storytime Sessions for Children at Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Katara Arts Center, WH Smith at Ezdan Mall
• Festival and Book Fair Programs
• You can invite Maktaba for a Session at your convenient venue and they would be glad to host a Storytime and craft activities for a very small fee.

Maktaba's Calendar is available at their website and they keep everyone up to date on all their activities via social media accounts including Facebook and Twitter. 

Great news is that  children are not required to bring anything to the sessions. Maktaba provides all the reading and crafting materials. When possible, through the generous support of partners and sponsors, they also do giveaways of books or reading related materials. Isn't that just awesome? Do not miss the next session! Keep an eye on their calendar!

We asked Sarah to describe a typical Story Time Session, and this is what she had to say:

"Each story time has a few key activities. we read a story in both English and Arabic. We try to choose stories in both languages under a shared theme. We then work together on a related craft activity which could be book making, shadow puppetry or drawing. "

Our goal is to encourage kids to reflect on what they have heard and respond through crafts. At the end of each session we ask the participants to present their work to the group. We find this is a great way to reinforce the value of their work and build self confidence".   

"We focus on reading in Arabic because there are fewer programs supporting reading in Arabic. All of our sessions are bi-lingual Arabic/English so everyone can participate and even learn a few new words in either language."

One of the applauding achievements of Maktaba was the Guinness World Record! In April Maktaba partnered with RasGas, the Supreme Education Council and Bloomsbury Qatar  to break the Guinness World Record for the largest Children's Reading Lesson.

 

When asked, what were or are the challenges Maktaba faced and facing in this journey?, Sarah confidently says: "Starting something new is always a challenge but we have been pleased by our progress and the interest of the community"

"There is an expanding interest in reading and supporting a culture of reading in Qatar. There are amazing on-line resources available from the Qatar National Library for example (follow @QNLib for more info). There are also some great book clubs such as Qatar Book Club and Khair Jalees." 

Our sincere thanks to Sarah Champa Al Dafa for sharing these much valuable information about Maktaba with Rush360 inspite of her busy schedules. We wish Mataba all success in this noble Journey!

PS: Locations of Mathaf Museum of Modern Art, Katara, WHSmith can be found at www.rush360.qa with accurate maps and details!