Lina and the Avocado
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Lina and the Avocado
I am a doctor from Liverpool who has worked with colleagues in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania and Liverpool, UK to create 'Lina and the Avocado'.
‘Lina and the Avocado' is a Swahili language storybook aimed at children in hospitals in Tanzania.
The donated storybooks I come across in Tanzania, tend to portray western children and are written in western languages. I have worked on different projects in Tanzania over the course of ten years and I have observed the joy children experience when read to, and understand the importance of being able to recognise oneself in characters. From a mixed heritage background myself, I remember the difficulties my own mother had in finding children’s books that reflected a wider range of backgrounds and skin colours.
Reading with children benefits neurodevelopment, can improve linguistic skills and promote bonding between parent and child. For numerous reasons, reading to children is less commonly practised in Tanzania than in the UK. However, my time working with children and adults there has shown me that the same benefits are waiting to be realised. Children love, and need, to be read to.
Furthermore, time working in a UK children's hospital has highlighted to me the vast differences between the wonderful facilities available to sick children in hospitals here in the UK, and the less well resourced paediatric wards of northern Tanzania.
The initial aim is to have enough books for several copies to be available on the paediatric wards of two hospitals in Arusha, Tanzania. The plan is to encourage mothers to read to their children while in hospital. In many cases, this is one of the few times a mother gets the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with her child.
I need to raise £1000 to print enough books to trial the response on the wards when I head back out in April/May time.
This is something very close to my heart and has been a labour of love. I will be so grateful for anything you feel you can contribute, and will keep all updated on progress.
I am a doctor from Liverpool who has worked with colleagues in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania and Liverpool, UK to create 'Lina and the Avocado'.
‘Lina and the Avocado' is a Swahili language storybook aimed at children in hospitals in Tanzania.
The donated storybooks I come across in Tanzania, tend to portray western children and are written in western languages. I have worked on different projects in Tanzania over the course of ten years and I have observed the joy children experience when read to, and understand the importance of being able to recognise oneself in characters. From a mixed heritage background myself, I remember the difficulties my own mother had in finding children’s books that reflected a wider range of backgrounds and skin colours.
Reading with children benefits neurodevelopment, can improve linguistic skills and promote bonding between parent and child. For numerous reasons, reading to children is less commonly practised in Tanzania than in the UK. However, my time working with children and adults there has shown me that the same benefits are waiting to be realised. Children love, and need, to be read to.
Furthermore, time working in a UK children's hospital has highlighted to me the vast differences between the wonderful facilities available to sick children in hospitals here in the UK, and the less well resourced paediatric wards of northern Tanzania.
The initial aim is to have enough books for several copies to be available on the paediatric wards of two hospitals in Arusha, Tanzania. The plan is to encourage mothers to read to their children while in hospital. In many cases, this is one of the few times a mother gets the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with her child.
I need to raise £1000 to print enough books to trial the response on the wards when I head back out in April/May time.
This is something very close to my heart and has been a labour of love. I will be so grateful for anything you feel you can contribute, and will keep all updated on progress.
Organizer
Ella Ward
Organizer
England