The Department of Municipalities and Transport, Al Ain City Municipality, is celebrating UAE Reading Month with events and initiatives that support reading, in line with the Cabinet's decision to designate the month of March as a national reading month to promote and increase the connection to reading and intensify initiatives and programs that encourage reading.
In his speech on the occasion of Reading Month, His Excellency Eng. Ali Khalifa Al Qamzi, Director General of Al Ain City Municipality, said: "Ensuring the sustainability and continuity of efforts to consolidate the culture of reading in society is one of the most important priorities that government and private entities place on their annual agenda, because of its importance in building and developing a generation of future leaders armed with culture and knowledge, which in turn will contribute to preserving the country's intellectual, cultural and knowledge achievements to build a civilized model to be emulated.
Iman Al Nuaimi, Head of Knowledge Department at Al Ain City Municipality, said that the municipality is keen through the activities of Reading Month to achieve the directives of the leadership in organizing activities and events that contribute to the development of knowledge wealth and spread the culture of knowledge, as these events and initiatives are an important opportunity to work to spread the culture of reading amongst various segments of society, and to consolidate the relationship between the reader and the book to build a personality characterized by awareness and openness in various directions and cultures.
Al Nuaimi added that the activities of Reading Month included the Reading for All initiative in Souq Sabee, where the initiative aims to encourage visitors to the market to practice the hobby of reading everywhere, including a miniature exhibition of libraries, a storyteller, an Arabic calligraphy workshop, various competitions and paragraphs, and a workshop on the importance of reading with the participation of Al Qattara Art Center and Zayed Central Library.
The municipality also organized a virtual visit to the Khalifa Park Library and Zayed Central Library through a virtual presentation to view the library and learn about the workshops held, in addition to participating in the "Mom Reads Me a Story" initiative organized by the Municipal Community Center - Al Amerah in cooperation with Alia School, which aims to provide a supportive environment for reading in an exceptional atmosphere available to all students, teachers and parents. Students, teachers and parents, embodying the principle of a cohesive family, a cohesive community under the umbrella of knowledge and reading. The events also included a reading month competition on the Kahoot platform, in addition to promoting reading among employees by supporting writing talents and publishing their works to urge and motivate all employees to actively participate in establishing a culture of reading.
On the other hand, Al Ain City Municipality has worked to establish reading corners in a number of its parks to achieve customer satisfaction and encourage community members to read, so that the reader can read in a light and comfortable atmosphere, and the addition of aesthetic elements of plants and flowers in each corner was taken into consideration.