THE CAUSE
Eyes Wide Open
Fostering a love of books is widely recognised as one of the most important things you can do for children to open their eyes to a whole new world and prepare them for life, which is exactly why projects like Maktaba, run by three professional Doha mothers, is so important, as Josie Hill discovers.
D
espite Qatar having some of the highest literacy rates in the Arab world, libraries are few and far between, and books are still sometimes seen as belonging to the classroom and not everyday life. Maktaba, with its mission to “provide a place to inspire children and their parents to fall in love with reading�, hopes to change this perception of books, and ultimately, to launch its own Arabic and English library for children in Doha. American born, Sarah Champa Al Dafa, explains the inspiration that drove her and her fellow founders to launch the project last year. “The drive to do something like this started when I realised the scarcity of books. The community aspect of libraries back home was very important to me for adults and children alike. So the idea for Maktaba was born about two years ago when I was lucky enough to find like-minded partners, Mohana Akshmi Raja Kumar and Hind Ambdulrahman Al Khilaifi.
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