Children intuitively love listening to stories.
Storytelling can play a critical role in developing a child’s personality. “Storytelling connects children in Gaza to their culture and their heritage and serves as an escape from the stress and strain of their surrounding reality,” says trainer Tahani Daloul. “Books are their building blocks for a better future.”
Helping Children in Gaza Read and Express Themselves
Tahani says storytelling can fuel a child’s imagination and a love of learning and also expand understanding of the world. Her ultimate goal, she explains, is to change the traditional methods of education and energize teachers to offer more varied strategies for reading.
With funding from Islamic Relief USA, Anera has bolstered reading programs in five preschools in Gaza, through renovations, equipping classrooms with child-appropriate furnishing and learning materials as well as training teachers in creative teaching techniques. The schools are located in Khan Younis, Deir El Balah, Jabalia and Rafah.
At the Ghassan Kanafani preschool in Jabalia, children gather around their teacher, eagerly listening to a story about a farmer and a carrot.
“Storytelling connects children in Gaza to their culture and their heritage and serves as an escape from the stress and strain of their surrounding reality."
“The story underlines the importance of participation, cooperation and teamwork. How the animals of the farm were united to help the farmer in pulling out the cord to remove the orange carrot stuck into the ground. Otherwise, the farmer would not be able to take it out by himself. How the team efforts is important and needed to access goals. After telling the story, the children dressed up with the costumes of the farm’s animals and performed a short play about the farm.”
“By telling stories with a meaningful message, you can talk to youngsters about basic values like courage and honesty,” says preschool teacher Zaynab El Jamal.
Reading is Crucial to Development
Using techniques she learned from Anera trainers, Zaynab varied her narration, using puppets and acting out parts of the story. She already notices a difference in one student’s behavior because of the more animated storytelling style. Mohammed’s mother used to complain that he never paid attention, didn’t drink his milk and didn’t listen to her. Zaynab says she reads stories to the whole class to encourage Mohammed and his classmates to talk and listen. “We talk about pictures in the story that are familiar to them and it’s a great chance for them to open up about their feelings.”
"Reading is a magical tool that can give children a lifelong love of learning.”
The mother has reported a significant change in her son’s behavior. She also noticed his vocabulary is expanding.
“Reading out stories is also a great way to teach children new words and pronunciation,” says teacher Zaynab.
Zaynab says developing a reading routine in the classroom and distributing books to children fosters more reading at home too. “It’s a magical tool that can give children a lifelong love of learning.”
