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Mae’n ddrwg gen i, mae’r cofnod hwn dim ond ar gael mewn English.
On UK and Ireland Word Book Day, we take the opportunity to share how our work is helping Malagasy people – children and adults – access and engage with books and reading.
Today, the UK and Ireland mark Word Book Day (globally, the World Book and Copyright Day is 23rd April).
It’s celebrated by children and young people dressing as characters from their favourite books, and at schools and homes to promote the benefits of reading, including reading for pleasure.
Books are many things, including gateways to pleasure, information and knowledge. All are important and help each of us build better lives for ourselves and others.
From text-books helping people learn new farming or needlework skills, to fiction painting images of magic and wonder in the minds of old and young readers alike, we know that books can change lives for the better, sparking imagination, creativity and inspiration which can lead to artistic, community and livelihoods initiative and breakthroughs.
But where we work, with Malagasy communities in many regions of Madagascar, access to books – both in terms of being able to find, and being able to read, them – can be a serious challenge.
That’s why libraries and books, free to access for all, and the literacy skills necessary to enjoy and learn from them, are one of the foundations of our work with and for men, women and children in Madagascar.
We have supported more than 100 schools, mentoring centres, centres for children and young people, and other facilities with libraries for children and adults alike, providing thousands of books for free community access and use in Madagascar. 
UK World Book Day’s research, like our own experience in Madagascar, shows that encouraging people to read rests on six foundation stones: children being read to regularly; having books at home and school; having a choice in what to read; finding time to read; having trusted help to find a book; and making reading fun.
Three of our programmes directly contribute to these ‘six pillars’: Education for Life, Protecting and Enabling Vulnerable Children and Solar United Madagascar.
Education for Life (EfL) and Protecting and Enabling Vulnerable Children (PEVC) have, amongst other achievements, provided libraries in well over 100 Malagasy schools, public facilities and centres for children and young adults unable to live with their families, ensuring thousands of books are available to Malagasy people of all ages.
Some of the youngsters who are reached by our PEVC programme are unable to read at all, and all schoolchildren reached by EfL receive reading lessons as part of their school education. Our work helps them to improve their reading, or learn to read, and provides them with access to a wide choice of educational, interesting and enjoyable fiction and non-fiction.
In the year 2022-23, the most recent for which data is available, EfL reached 4,222 people – 2,728 children and young people, 1,554 parents and 76 teachers, all of whom were able to access libraries created and stocked with books as part of the programme.
Our PEVC programme also helps children to learn, using books the programme provides.
Vonintsoa and Nirina Rianah had never set foot in a classroom when they first came to the Fihavanana centre for children and young people unable to live with their families.
They could not read or write, but through their own hard work, that of the centre’s teaching staff, and support from their parents, they can now not only read and write, but have also learnt Maths.
Other examples include the Akany Hasina Saturday club for rural children and families who live within an hour’s walk of Ambohidrabiby village, where 60 children and their parents use our library (and other services) on a weekly basis, accessing books they would otherwise struggle to find, while at Ankizy Gasy Mentoring Centre, which opened last Saturday (1st March 2025) in Ambohidatrimo, thousands of children and adults now have access to a modern, well-equipped library to help them engage or re-engage with reading for enjoyment and education.
Education for Life also works on adult literacy. As we worked on the programme, we discovered that parents of some of the students were concerned that they were unable to help their children with their school work due to their own low literacy level.
We responded by delivering literacy courses which connect to rural development, focusing on improving educational outcomes for children by supporting literacy and business skills of parents at Education for Life schools.
Each participating parent, like all in their community, can access the library, where many learnt skills which have helped their working, as well as family, lives.
At Ambohibary Primary School, where Education for Life has carried out activities including improving literacy, teacher training, and building a library, all facilities and programmes were open to parents and other community members.
One parent, Angelique Soloniaina, took part in our ‘literacy at school level’ course for ten months. In this course, she learnt to read and write, skills which she used to learn more about agricultural and livestock farming techniques from books at the school’s library. Using these books, she applied new techniques to her work, and has managed to more than double her income.
Another parent of one of the school’s children, Ando Randrianasolo, used the school’s library to learn needlework, and now earns a weekly wage from her work. This includes creating uniforms for the school’s children.
Our Solar United Madagascar programme, in which we and three other Madagascar-focused organisations work to provide affordable solar energy to improve Malagasy education and power the country’s development, is also helping young people and adults engage with and access books.
One thing the programme enables Malagasy people to do is replace harmful and/or expensive charcoal, candles, and kerosene with solar power to light their homes, meaning they can read in the evenings and nights, without having to fear for their health, or the expense. It means children can read alone, and parents can read to and with them at home.
Learning to read and appreciate books, and being able to access them easily in all senses can be central to improving the lives of adults and children, by improving incomes and livelihoods, as well as by engaging imaginations and introducing us all to new ways of thinking and expressing ourselves.
This is just as true in Madagascar as it is in the UK, and we are proud of our contribution to Malagasy people enabling their own access to, and engagement with, books.
