How reading and Access to Information affects Kibera

How we can rally people to curb the reading gap in our societies in my view; Firstly, I agree with the fact that many people in our societies cannot read. I encourage schools, educators and parents to help identify the problem at a very early stage in the child’s life. Then find institutes, after care, day care or young students who can assist with reading classes, in a safe, healthy and conducive environment for the child learner.

Hence my involvement with schools and pre-schools where we teaching children after school how to read, spell, to understand what they read, and basically assisting them to do their homework. Sometimes parents struggle to read too, and therefore cannot assist their children with reading and completing their homework.

Reading for me, is the foundation of learning. Anyone with a learning problem has a reading problem. Once a person can read, and understand what they read, learning becomes easy which leads to academic success.

We know information is knowledge and knowledge is power. However, even if access to information is available, if one cannot read the information, than knowledge cannot be gained. That makes the person frustrated, who then loses interest to acquire information, which follows by a low self esteem and low confidence.

School work, learning tasks can only be completed successfully if the learner is able to read.

So really the only way to help is to detect a reading problem early, in a child, address it, to form a good basis for learning and academic success. Parents and teachers should be the ones looking for the signs of a reading problem and should speak up early so that a child can get the right help at an early stage of detecting the problem, if one waits too long; it is difficult to rectify the problem.

By Gonzag Odero.