After thirty years, the Duffy Books in home programme has given away around 15 million books.
Vaganā Linda Vaganā has been recruiting a special squad.
No not to play netball but to read.
“It’s about getting kids to love reading,” she says
“it’s about inspiring them to be literate to find time where they can learn, read with their family, read with their schools, read with their teachers, their peers but the most important thing is, that they are confident readers,”
The retired netball International now ‘captains’ the ‘Duffy books in homes’ programme as General Manager, helping to provide free books to more than 500 schools across Aotearoa.
Duffy books in homes was founded in the 1990s by Novelist Alan Duff who wrote the book Once Were Warriors. In the book, the character ‘Beth’ remarks at how homes on American soap opera’s have books, whereas their homes have none.
The Duffy books programme was therefore set up to break the cycle of “booklessness” in Aotearoa.
Now three decades on, the programme has gifted almost 15 million books to young readers thanks to their funding partners, supporters and donors. It has proven so successful, it has inspired offshoot programmes in Australia and the USA.
Vaganā says teachers do their part to educate children, Duffy Books can help children get into the reading habit.
“We’re in there and we say, hey, this is something really cool. You are receiving two books each term, it’s up to about seven books a year and they (students) can start building little libraries of their own in their home.”
Today, there is a decline in reading rates among young learners and Vaganā is concerned about the flow-on effect into adulthood.
“Where literacy sits and where the achievement rates are for our young people, who are moving from primary through to year nine starting high school, there’s up to about 40 percent of our kids that are leaving primary school and not able to read,” she says.
From a young age Vaganā knew the power of reading and how that can change lives. It’s what drives her to do her work.
“You feel that you’ve been privileged as a person and it’s just that kind of enjoyment you want to be able to see that everyone can experience it.”
Now the proud Sāmoan is entering a new chapter in her life marking 20 years as the GM for Duffy books in homes.
Even with the shift to digital resources, she is confident books will always be around.
“We are ensuring that kids see that there’s a cool thing about books, you know?
“You don’t need to connect it to charge it, you don’t need to swipe like you do on your phone, you just turn the pages and it’s there. You can always get it back and read the information, it doesn’t disappear.”
