The Family Development Foundation (FDF) has launched a series of initiatives, events and workshops through the Zayed Humanitarian Library (ZHL) for senior citizens and all members of society. This comes in line with the relentless efforts of the Foundation to foster a culture of reading and build a society based on education and knowledge.
Through these initiatives, FDF aims to make reading a constant part of lifestyle, which plays a pivotal role in shaping a cultured and modern society.
Fatima Obaid Al Mansoori, Head of the ZHL team and Director of the Al Marfa Centre, said: “At ZHL, we are actively implementing the ‘Reading Community’ initiative. As part of our efforts, we have conducted more than 15 interactive workshops with the participation of over 250 members from families and communities across FDF’s centres in Abu Dhabi, Al Dhafra and Al Ain.”
The workshops covered various fields, such as the presentation of valuable books, awareness messages on speed reading techniques and panel discussions to evaluate the practices for nurturing a love of reading within families and promoting knowledge exchange across generations.
Al Mansoori noted that the library is preparing to honour the winning families in the ‘Family Reading Challenge – Second Edition.’ The competition was held with an aim to nurture the culture of reading within families, encourage positive knowledge dialogue and contribute to improving effective family communication, while providing innovative and sustainable solutions to reduce family challenges.
Furthermore, she noted that more than 130 families participated in the challenge, with 12 families qualifying for the final stage and the top three being selected as winners. Along with the challenge, various other workshops were also conducted, such as ‘Planning Family Reading’ and ‘Techniques for Documenting Family Activities to Support and Educate Participating Families,’ in addition to various dialogue sessions that highlighted the success stories and facilitated the exchange of experiences and knowledge.
In line with its commitment to foster a knowledge-driven work environment, ZHL introduced the ‘Reading Corner’ initiative across FDF centres. The key goal of this initiative is to create a cultural environment that motivates employees to engage in reading during working hours and breaks. It also enables employees to reserve a reading corner for 10 minutes each day, which helps to enhance job satisfaction, professional well-being, creativity and innovation. Furthermore, a competition will be held under the initiative in three categories: Best Reading Corner, Best Employee Reader and Best Content Presenter Reader. The annual award for the winners of the competition will be presented during the Foundation’s annual ceremony.
The Foundation also conducts regular book exchange sessions for employees and library visitors in order to foster cultural sharing and knowledge-based discussions among individuals. Additionally, reading sessions and discussions are conducted, featuring writers, intellectuals and experts to explore the recent literary and cultural publications and to exchange perspectives and ideas.
The Foundation is dedicated to its role in developing a reading society that promotes knowledge. It aims to encourage continuous learning among individuals, families and employees to support the development of an educated and innovative society capable of navigating future challenges and achieving sustainable social development through culture and knowledge.
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