The City Government of Davao, through the City Library and Information Center (CLIC), is celebrating the 88th National Book Week, with the theme “Basa. Bayan. Bukas.”
The celebration, which will run from November 24-30, aims to emphasize the importance of reading and to further improve the literacy rate in the city.
CLIC Officer-in-Charge Salome Enoc said that unlike the previous Book Week Celebrations which encouraged the active participation of grade school kids, this year focuses on the participation of daycare pupils. This is to establish a rapport with daycare centers in the city before launching another mobile library service for preschoolers.
“Since we will be coming up with a new service, kanang atong (our) book mobile na bag-o will be catering to daycare centers, so nag-establish na ta’g (we already established) relations with our daycare centers,” Enoc said.
This year’s National Book Week celebration opened with a role-playing competition at the NCCC Buhangin on Thursday. Eight groups of preschool children from eight districts participated in the competition.
“We are happy with the participation because we were only expecting five entries, unya niabot na mas daghan-daghan ang nag-participate (then more actually participated),” Enoc said.
Enoc added that making children in their early formative years take active part in story-telling will encourage their interest in stories and books which will serve as their gateway to literature.
“Ingani nato mapakita atong (This is how we show our) thrust to lure children back to reading labi na kay mga batan-on pa gyud (especially since they are still very young). We have to introduce them to the culture of book-reading,” she said. CIO
