Chabahar

Chabahar

Geographical Location: Southeast of Sistan & Balouchestan, Chabahar District
Age-group: First grade and multi-grade classes of Elementary School
Number of Children: 2400
Start Date: October 2016
In Progress

The Read with Me program started its activities in Chabahar in the academic year of 2016/17 for 2350 children by the supports of a group of benefactors. In October 2016, 67 tutors participated in the Read with Me workshops. Read with Me experts visited the region and schools covered by the project in November 2016.

Overview

The central town of Chabahar, covering about 17155 km², has a population of over 120,000. This city is located in the southeast of Iran and is the only port of the Indian Ocean in Iran.

In October 2016, 67 tutors participated in basic Read with Me workshops. Including: Reading Aloud, The Dictionary of Riddles, Learning Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Skills, Learning Farsi through Literature, Learning Numeracy Skills and Dramatic Arts. Overall, 1730 first grade students and 617 students from multi-grade classes have been covered by this project.

In December 2016 and January 2017, visits were made to monitor the correct implementation of the program and its progress. During the visits, “Read with Me” experts evaluated Reading Aloud sessions and their related activities, fixed the problems, and provided suggestions for teachers to improve their performance. Following a visit to the classes and examining the challenges, a second round of workshops was held in December 2016. In addition to reviewing the previous workshops and answering questions, complementary workshops on Reading Aloud, Basic Literacy and Dramatic Arts were held.

In 2017, two schools in the villages around Chabahar and a school in Zarabad, expressed their interest in setting up child-centered libraries in their schools and allocated a room for this purpose. The Read with Me executive team traveled to the region in September 2017. After holding a workshop on Child-centered Libraries, they equipped and established school libraries at these schools.

Twelve people, including librarians from these three schools, and a number of teachers and librarians from other schools were trained in the workshop and became familiar with the characteristics and functions of a child-centered library, a rich literacy environment and librarianship.

Now, these libraries have been running with the assistance of children, teachers and librarians. Among those, Haft-e-Tir and Nabovvat libraries are equipped with nearly 600 quality books.