In collaboration with the Kigali Public Library and the newly inaugurated Rwanda Library services, the Rwinkwavu Community Library and Learning Center (RCLLC) promoted the National Reading Week in the Kayonza District.  Open only since since July, the RCLLC is already positively impacting the district’s reading culture. During the week, the library promoted and hosted several activities aimed at raising the community’s awareness of the importance of literacy and improving thereading culture. Using its beautiful facility, and intelligent and passionate library staff, the RCLLC hosted an extremely successful National Reading Week. Over 115 community members from Rwinkwavu participated in the week’s events.  Community discussions were conducted about the importance of story-telling and leisure reading from a young age, and how literacy can transform access to knowledge for the betterment of oneself, the community, and the entire nation. Children were led by staff in hourly read-alouds and sensitized to the importance not only of being able to read, but of being able to express oneself through writing. The children were then invited to share their own oral stories on stage at the outdoor ampitheatre. Then, each attendee was given their own ‘home-made’ books and had the opportunity to create their own story-books. Also during National Reading Week, the library staff attended community meetings in each of the district’s four cells to sensitize the community to the function and benefits of the RCLLC, and to invite any and all to take advantage of this new and exciting community resource. Additionally, the library staff invited illiterate adults in the community to sign up for the Adult Kinyarwanda Literacy Program and over 100 enrolled. The sky’s the limit for literacy in the Rwinkwavu community. In the future, the library will also offer English language classes, ICT training, and music education. Along with the day-to-day energy and excitement that persists in this rural library, these initiatives are sure to support the Rwanda Library Services mission in spreading literacy and a love for reading and knowledge across the country. Matt

Welcome Matt and Cory Melaugh We are thrilled to announce the hire of Matt Melaugh as the new Program Director in Rwanda for Ready for Reading. Matt has had incredible experience working in the education and non-profit worlds for the past several years and has made a huge contribution in one of the most underserved neighborhoods in the Boston area. Matt will be arriving in Rwanda September 8^th and living out in Rwinkwavu with his wife Cory, who has been hired as a training specialist at the Hospital, serving as a nurse educator and mentor as part of a larger country-wide initiative through the Rwandan Ministry of Health. They will both be a wonderful addition to the community! Ready for Reading is so excited to have a leader of this caliber with a global perspective committed to making a lasting impact and difference. With his strong spirit of collaboration and teambuilding skills he will be an amazing asset ensuring the success of the Project as we move forward in this next phase. Matt is ready and eager to begin his work at the RCLLC and is looking forward to meeting and working with local community leaders and residents of Rwinkwavu.

Our 20 library apprentices, hired from the Rwinkwavu community, were well prepared to open the RCLLC’s doors to the community. Our first day open for business we had 423 people visit!! The building was humming with excitement and curiosity and the response was overwhelmingly positive as you can see from the faces in the photo. Currently, we are open one day a week to the public as we continue our staff training in ICT, English, story telling, read-alouds, customer service, library services/organization and management, curriculum and programming development. We will also be using this training period to further assess the needs of the community. In October we will be expanding our days of operation to include not only open library time but Kinyarwanda Adult literacy classes, e-reader classes, Sunday School, Mothers’ Literacy Group and a variety of cultural/social activities, …adding programming as we develop curriculum and train staff.