We Love Reading
Mother, Teacher, Professor molecular cell biology Hashemite University, Jordan, Harvard Radcliff fellow, a Fulbrighter, Eisenhower fellow, Yale and Cambridge visiting professor. Established Jordan stem cell ethics law. Studies epigenetics of trauma across generations in refugees. Higher education reform expert, UN women advisory council, Partnerships for enhanced engagement in research award 2014 for women mentor network. Organized the first Arab gender summit. Most influential Islamic World woman scientists, 12 among100 influential Arab women, Fulbright Global Changemaker Award.
Founded “We love reading” received Synergos Arab world social innovators 2009, Clinton Global Initiative 2010, Library of Congress best practices 2013, World Innovation Summit in Education Award, King Hussein Medal of Honor 2014, Star Award, IDEO.org best refugee education program 2015, UNESCO International Literacy Prize 2017, Jacobs social entrepreneurship award 2018, Science, Technology and Innovation Award UN, Ashoka Fellow 2019.
Speaker/author: TEDxDeadsea, TEDxPSUT, Five scarves, Doing the impossible. Nova Publisher 2018. Reviewed by Nature
Globally, there is systemic failure of formal education. The fast changing world requires an innovative transformative framework with an equity lens. Love of reading is fundamental to unleash a lifelong potential to drive self-learning and a pathway out of learning poverty.
The WLR Program fosters love of reading by training local volunteers to ensure equity (WLR ambassadors WLR-A) to readaloud for fun to children (0-12) in local neighbourhoods and exchange storybooks in the native language and culture motivating children to become drivers of learning. The WLR-As form a network connected through a virtual platform to enable peer-to-peer learning and support. The WLR-As become changemakers within their communities. The result is a community with a mindset of I can.
Developed locally and backed by rigorous academic research, WLR is an impactful, scalable, grassroots and sustainable model. WLR adopts a systemic approach to education by addressing the root cause: lack of motivation.
Globally, the systemic failure of formal education is captured in one outcome measure, 53% children in LIMIC are ‘learning poor,’ defined as unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10 (World Bank, 2019). The fast changing world requires an innovative transformative framework with an equity lens. Now, a health-related pandemic (COVID19) of school closures impacting 1.4 billion children globally, has further exacerbated what was already a deep and slow-moving education pandemic. As every parent knows, while reading is just one outcome that needs dramatic improvement at scale, it is fundamental to unleash a lifelong potential to drive self-learning and a pathway out of learning poverty.
Reading aloud for fun as early as inutero fosters a love of reading and learning to motivate children to become drivers of learning at home. However, parents don’t read aloud to their children because of lack of training and awareness. Most programs focus on providing books, few on reading aloud that goes beyond the sphere of formal education and into the everyday psychology and experience of children changing mindsets to create changemakers focusing by addressing the root cause: lack of motivation to become lifelong learners and doers
WLR creates system change by cultivating a love for reading and altering mindsets to create changemakers. WLR is an innovative model that provides a practical, cost efficient, sustainable, and grassroots approach to empower communities through activism of local volunteers to increase reading levels among children 0-12. We focus on the read-aloud experience through human interaction using the native language to plant the love of reading in children in early childhood inspiring them to become lifelong learners. WLR impacts emotional regulation, executive function, literacy skills and psychosocial status especially in lower socioeconomic and vulnerable communities. WLR empowers adults and youth to become social entrepreneurs by leading read aloud sessions in their local community. WLR motivates both children and adults to pursue learning because they “want to” not because they “have to”, fostering ownership and responsibility. WLR is a basic framework based on shared universal human values allowing it to scale all over the world, while at the same time adapting to any culture or context. WLR developed a digital solution for training, monitoring and evaluation through a global network on a virtual platform (a mobile app) to connect volunteers around the world (GAN).
WLR serves vulnerable communities (refugees, minorities, women, elderly, disabled) and lower social and economic sectors of society globally. Individuals who have been marginalized/oppressed systematically instigating victimhood, dependency and despair. My parents are Syrian and Palestinian refugees therefore I lived the life and am constant interaction with the community I serve. I developed the program from within and in constant interaction with the community. WLR-As start the program in their neighborhood, are in total control to adapt/change/tailor the program fitting their needs and that of their community. The program is very simple and doesn't require any previous education. They own the program. this gives them a sense of agency and ownership and control over their future. It removes dependency and helps them think on their own. This builds their resilience and confidence and sense of self discovering their voice literally and figuratively through reading aloud to children. They are incentivized by the credit they receive from the community becoming leaders and changemakers tackling the challenges in their local neighborhood by designing their solutions. WLR-As share experiences of what works and what doesn't as true partners which we incorporate into the program. WLRAs are integral to the program. They are the program.
- Elevating opportunities for all people, especially those who are traditionally left behind
WLR fosters love of reading in Children. This widens their imagination, learn about other people fostering empathy, better at communication, listening, conflict resolution and finding solutions beyond their local community, drawing the courage to be heroes they read about. Loving to read leads to life long learners. We can change practices, attitudes and behavior of children towards issues by reading stories such as environment conservation, hygiene, gender and disability respect. Children grow up to be champions of these behaviors in their communities in an easy simple effective way. The human-to-human experience reduces stress, helps healthy social-emotionalbrain development.
In 2006 I realized after returning to Jordan that children don't read for fun and therefore don't reap the benefits of reading. As a scientist through observation and research I found that to foster love of reading parents should read aloud to their children as early as inutero. I thought it would be impossible to knock on every door and no one would listen even if a law was passed. So I took it upon myself to be the change and with my own family started gathering the children in the local mosque in my neighborhood reading in Arabic stories from the culture once a week. I gave the children books to read at home and bring back next week. Despite initial doubt by the community of the futility of my actions the children fell in love and were demanding their parents to read and to come to the readaloud sessions. Later the community started donating books and money for more books. I spent three years through trial and error developing the model resulting in an empirical formula for success with least input and cost yet maximum impact. I was doing human-centered design without knowing. Natural evolution in practice.
My parents are Syrian and Palestinian refugees I have witnessed and lived first hand marginalization and discrimination. I realized the shortcoming of systems in place and futility of trying to change them because of bureaucracy and foreign interference. I realized that any real sustainable change should be bottom up and will take a long time. I felt the only way to change things was to start at the grassroots so that people demand and create the change (Pedagogy of the oppressed). I grew up an avid reader and realised that reading made me think outside the box and challenge the status quo. I wanted to instill this spirit in the children of my society and the world. This is a global problem not only in my community. Reading changes mindsets and as a result creates changemakers. If all children grow up loving to read they will read to their children and so on I will have created system change at the grassroots by addressing the root cause. I felt it was a crime for a child not grow up loving to read to discover their inner potential and the world around them.
I am a mother of four and know first hand challenges of raising children, I was a teacher for 10 years in Jordan (1 to 12 grade) realizing the challenges facing students, parents, teachers and administers and now as a university professor I employ innovative pedagogy to make learning fun and to foster citizens who have a mind set of "I can", who can use their skills to serve their community. I am a professor of molecular biology employing the scientific method in designing, assessing and evaluating the impact of the program that I have developed. This allowed a unique perspective into the world of social entrepreneurship and practionares in development and humanitarian aid challenging status quo and coming up with innovative approaches. Rigorous academic research of WLR impact is done in collaboration with professors from international and local universities. Most importantly I am from the community I serve. We know better our problems and the root causes. Therefore better at developing sustainable solutions that are effective. I have worked since I started the program with multiple stakeholders, government and ministries, private sector, scientists, education psychologists, publishers, writers, UN agencies and INGOs. I have worked in multiple geographies: Ethiopia, US, MENA with refugees and local communities. I have been the local lead with Yale in studying impact of INGOS programs on refugees in Jordan.
WLR doesn’t pay volunteers, INGOs thought this wouldn't work with refugees. I knew developing WLR that paying volunteers takes away agency and motivation. This is WLR's secret sauce for successful sustainability where other INGOs fail. It's a thin line that's easy to cross and loose the people. Therefore in spite of opposition, I insisted on no change in the Programm or I wont guarantee results. I had proof: WLR had spread to many countries and WLR-A kept reading years beyond the end of any project. I listened but politely stood my ground with confidence asking to be trusted. I conducted training in Azraq camp. Refugee WLR-As are still reading aloud today four years later even under COVID19 strict conditions. INGOs interviewed WLR-A: "why do you read ? We read for ourselves for our children”. A WLR-A's father on the Turkish border heard about what she was doing, he wrote her in support a poem about reading. Today because of COVID19, INGOs are slowly realizing that the WLR way is the right way on the long run because it's simple, built on shared values in response to a real need of feeling agency to build a better future.
I was giving a WLR training in Aqaba South of Jordan when a woman came up to me and demanded that I build a library for her. I asked her why do you want me to build you a library? If you really want one shouldn’t you build it?. I gave the WLR training talking about taking responsibility, ownership and exploring our own potential. I shared my story of how I started WLR in my neighborhood and the challenges I faced in getting parents and community buy in. The woman went home and six months later called me inviting me to inaugurate her real library. She had started reading aloud in her local mosque. The children were so many there was no space, a local contractor built a room and all the neighbors came to paint and make a real library. This library is still functional 7 years later run by this woman and her neighborhood. If I had built her a library it wouldn’t be sustained.
I lead by example. I have an open framework for my teams to share and learn together collaboratively. This brings out the best of everybody and actions become the benchmark for success.
- Nonprofit
We Love Reading is a program that I developed in 2006. I registered the We Love Reading program as a trademark in the US and Europe. I established a non profit as a legal umbrella in 2010 in Jordan. This organization is called Taghyeer which is an Arabic word that means Change in English. We Love Reading operates under Taghyeer. I am the President of Taghyeer.
Founder and Director