Harambee Reading Academy: 'All pulling together' for a brighter future through reading
Gordon Freireich
"Harambee" is a Swahili word meaning "all pulling together." It is the motto of Kenya.
Appropriately, it is the name of a reading program – the Harambee Reading Academy – in York designed to encourage children to read and build their self-confidence as they build their futures.
Last Saturday the hallways of Jabez Ministries, 40 Jefferson Ave. – where the Harambee Reading Academy is housed – were decorated with yellow crepe paper streamers and inspirational messages as students prepared for a graduation ceremony. The ministry is named for a person in the Bible (1 Chronicles 4:10).
Prior to that event, Jeffrey Kirkland outlined the meaning and purpose of the reading program.
It is designed "to change the culture; to know thyself, to love thyself," Kirkland said, of the program aimed at African-American children, but open to all students in grades three through nine. "We're using our culture and tradition to stimulate reading." There is a spiritual component to the academy that links today's students to "their ancestors' world."
In its second year, there are 20 students in the Saturday morning academy with 16 tutors (former teachers and volunteers) to help them with their studies.
The goal: "To instill pride and confidence" in the students; "to think for themselves" and "to be articulate and knowledgeable." For Kirkland, a past president of the York City School Board and leader of the York African-American Historical Preservation Society, that all comes together through reading. "Education is the uplift of our community," he adds.
He continues: "Genius is in our kids. We have to bring it out."
To inspire the students – and reward them for their accomplishments – Harambee Reading Academy recently took them and other guests on a bus trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
Writing about the trip, Kirkland said:
"It is extraordinarily uplifting to watch a group of kids interact so positively and comfortably in an environment that reflects who they really are." The trip "was an educationally, spiritually and intellectually uplifting event for our children as they reveled at the information and images that were representative of themselves. If you want to see our children stimulated and motivated to learn, teach them about themselves and their history."
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The approximately $4,500 funding for two eight-week sessions and the bus trip came from community donations "from supportive community folk," Kirkland said. The academy also participated in the recent Give Local York event.
Looking to the future, the Harambee Reading Academy begins its third year in September. A new curriculum is planned, "Rites of Passage," for older male teens to prepare them for "manhood and fatherhood."
Eventually, Kirkland would like to see the academy have its own building and coordinate its programs with those of the school districts.
As Kirkland wrote, and reflective of the Harambee name, "because real change in our community and our future is really up to us working TOGETHER to effect that change."
And reading is the first step on that journey.
Gordon Freireich is a former editor of the York Sunday News. Email: gordonaf2805@gmail.com.