Kids Read is a reading program that began in the Middle East and North Africa to motivate children to read both in and out of the classroom. It has since expanded to other regions. The program provides schools with collections of children's books, teacher training in reading strategies, and student reading competitions. It aims to establish good reading habits in children and expose them to other cultures. Kids Read is supported by grants from HSBC Bank and involves volunteers, schools, ministries of education, parents and communities. To date it has benefitted over 50,000 children across 200 schools in 13 countries.

1. Overview
Kids 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.

2. 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 Read
Kids 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 Education
Participating 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.

3. 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 Events
Four 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

4. HSBC partnership
HSBC 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.
Testimonials
Kids 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