OverviewKids Read is an award-winning scheme initially developed to help primary children

enjoy reading both inside and outside the classroom, across the Middle East North

Africa region, as teachers and parents often struggle to find ways to motivate children

to read. However, this is not a MENA specific problem and Kids Read is moving into

other regions of the world.

Reading opens up a world of opportunities for children exposing them to other

cultures, attitudes, and issues such as the environment and the value of money.

Good reading habits established early, improve later performance in a range of life

skills as well as developing language and critical thinking skills. Kids Read provides

schools with access to exciting and colourful fiction books from the UK to help start or

build upon a school library, whilst supporting and complementing current Ministry of

Education reading programmes.

After three successful consecutive years where the scheme reached approximately

50,000 students, 500 teachers directly, thousands of teachers indirectly, 400 HSBC

volunteers and thousands of parents to help spread the message that Reading is

Fun, Kids Read is now into the fourth consecutive year in MENA and the first year in

Asia. ‘Kids Read’ won a Silver ‘Stevie’ International Business Award in 2012 in the

CSR category.

Kids Read is supported by grants from HSBC Bank and was developed by the British

Council to provide for an engaging and child-friendly reading programme which will

open up a world of opportunities to children, exposing them to other cultures,

attitudes and issues.

Up to eighteen government primary schools are currently involved in each of the

participating countries. Kids Read runs throughout the academic year.

Facts & Figures to date 13 participating countries in 2011 – Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan,

Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia & UAE

11 participating countries in 2012 - Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,

Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE

9 participating countries in 2013 - Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait,

Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, and UAE

8 participating countries in MENA in 2014 – Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon,

Oman, Palestine, Qatar and UAE

7 participating countries in Asia in 2014 – Bangladesh, Hong Kong,

Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam

Total of 200 participating schools to date

Estimated 50,000 children benefitting in schools to date

Approximately 1000 teachers have received direct teacher training to date

Approximately 400 HSBC staff volunteers have been involved to date

Components of Kids ReadKids Read is a holistic programme designed to work with as many different

stakeholders as possible to ensure that children are fully supported when it comes to

encouraging reading.

Work with schools and Ministries of EducationParticipating schools: six new schools are selected to join Kids Read each

academic year. The schools should come from the government sector and ideally be

three girls’ schools and three boys’ schools to ensure equal access to all. As far as

possible, we try to work with schools that are from lower socio-economic

backgrounds and have less access to resources and/or current methodology

however the final selection is determined by the Ministry of Education.

Each participating country currently has up to 18 schools that are in the Kids Read

programme and an additional six schools will be added next year.

Books: each participating school receives an engaging and child-friendly collection

of approximately 80 titles of UK children’s fiction books which they get to keep to

either add to or start up their school library. The collection contains a range of books

to help students move from teacher-led reading to independent reading.

Accompanying lesson plans, worksheets and activity ideas are available for teachers

to use to minimise their planning time and also to showcase high quality lesson

plans. A range of incentives are provided to encourage students to read the self-

access books and also self-access worksheets and answer keys.

Training: Kids Read has developed a suite of teacher training workshops that look at

storytelling techniques and incorporating reading strategies into the classroom.

Schools are provided with training materials so that they can then cascade the

information for other teachers and/or refer to it in future. HSBC volunteers also

receive training in storytelling.

Competitions: A number of competitions are scheduled throughout the academic

year for participating school students to maintain engagement and momentum in the

programme. Two competitions have been designed for students and two for

teachers. Each competition is judged in-country on an inter-school basis. The first

prize winner from each competition is then entered into a regional competition with

the winners from the other participating countries to find an overall top three regional

prize winners.

Community EventsFour Kid Read community events, supported by HSBC staff volunteers, are

scheduled throughout the year. These events are open to the general public and/or

wider school community in each country. Each event is linked to an HSBC CSR

theme. A typical community event consists of:

Storytelling and accompanying activities

Arts and Crafts

Competitions and Prizes

Workshops for parents on encouraging reading and developing English

Language skills

HSBC partnershipHSBC Bank Middle East Ltd & Affiliates are the exclusive sponsors of Kids Read in

eight participating countries in MENA and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking

Corporation have awarded grants to fund seven countries in Asia Pacific. As well as

being involved from a financial perspective, HSBC were keen to be involved in the

planning stages and helped shape the programme, most notably with the inclusion of

four of their Corporate Social Responsibility areas which are addressed in the lesson

plans and, more specifically, at the community events. The four themes are

volunteerism, the value of money, arts and culture, and the environment.

HSBC staff also support Kids Read through a volunteer programme which has seen

more than three hundred members of staff across the region participate in community

events. Their roles have ranged from helping with logistics to delivering storytelling.

The latter receive training from British Council to ensure that they are sufficiently

prepared and confident to read in front of the children.

TestimonialsKids Read involves several activities, it’s books, a lot of reading for the kids, a lot of

storytelling activities, they have volunteers through HSBC getting involved with the

activities, so I think it enhances literacy, it also promotes some of the artistic skills

with our students, and it involves parents, and I think enhancing a culture of reading

requires that you get all members of the community involved. So we’re very thankful

to have this initiative.

Her Excellency Dr. Mediha al Shebaniyah, Minister of Eduation - Oman

Teachers really appreciated kids read program. They learned new techniques for

storytelling. The teachers motivated the children and encourage them to think,

predict and guess. The books are excellent quality and different from books that

they can buy in Egypt.

Ons salib mina (Inspector in Hurghada), Egypt