“Whenever I held a book in my hands, I would feel them shaking. I was always saying to myself: “Oh, my God! How can I read all this? It is impossible.” But my attitude completely changed when I joined the programme.”

This is how Luay Shaaban Islim, a student in the sixth grade in Gaza, describes his feelings after he started attending the “Reading Together” programme at the Qattan Centre for the Child (QCC). In a short period of time, Luay was able to type letters, arrange words in construction games, and to form whole phrases fluidly.