Written by Abbie Wong

Most of you will have seen it as a CAS activity on the Student Bulletin at the beginning of this school year, but it is actually something that’s beneficial to the futures of the kids involved. What are we referring to? We are referring to the Buddy Reading Program.

During a session that took place on October 24th, 2019 volunteers from RCHK ranged from Year 9 to Year 12, and the children from Ma On Shan St. Joseph Primary School (馬鞍山聖若瑟中學) ranged from 8-9 years old. After an icebreaker, two volunteers read a book to the children. That day, the selected book was about a frog travelling and learning about the types of foods other animals ate. After reading, they did an activity based around the book and wrapped up the day with buddy reading.

In an interview with Shevaun Yip, a Year 11 student leader of the program, she stated that the goal of the Buddy Reading Program is “to instill the interest and passion of reading for fun.” She gave a similar statement regarding the goal for its student volunteers, saying that without a shared passion, “you can’t support the other kids.” Yip also mentioned that the volunteers develop skills such as leadership and communication.

“I wanted to challenge myself with working with kids and build up on my communication skills,” commented Year 12 volunteer Royee Chan. Year 9 volunteer Alex Hwang stated that “by reading English books to them, I hope [we are] improving their English and also allowing them to have fun.” The children and the volunteers seemed quite happy to be there, and definitely enjoyed themselves during the process.

With all of this in mind, what purpose would the Buddy Reading Program serve in underprivileged schools globally? In LEDCs around the world, literacy rates can be as low as 19%. So now that it has been shown to help children’s literacy skills living in a privileged city like Hong Kong, the Buddy Reading Program can help hundreds and thousands more globally.