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Preschoolers in Rwanda look at the books created for them by String Theory School students in Philadelphia. (Provided by String Theory Schools)
About 1,000 preschool children in more than a dozen schools in Rwanda have each received a picture book designed by a group of high school students in Philadelphia.
At String Theory charter’s Philadelphia Performing Arts school, 21 teenagers ranging from grades 9 – 12, created “Baskets of Fun, Under the Sun” with Books and Beyond USA, an initiative to produce books for young readers in Rwanda.
According to BBUSA, Rwanda has few books for very young readers in English, the primary language taught in schools since 2008, and for many this will be the first book they own. A report by the Rwanda Children’s Book Initiative said children’s books in the national Kinyarwanda language are “virtually nonexistent.” The dearth of books has prompted local Rwandan publishers to band together in advocating for early childhood lit