Kāinga Pukapuka – Cook Islands

Our young people have been away from school for so long and with libraries closed there is a concern that for many, their literacy levels will drop making school even more challenging for them when they eventually return.

The purpose of the Kāinga Pukapuka project is to help alleviate this by gifting packs of books to children so they can start or add to their own home library.

Will today’s young people really read books in this device overloaded time? Yes they will, most definitely! The key is seeing themselves and things they value in the books. If they do, they will read for sure.

The books in the Kāinga Pukapuka project are specifically chosen so that children from different cultural groups can experience the thrill of reading books they can engage and connect with.

A whakataukī says: “Mā te huruhuru te manu ka rere.” (By feathers the bird will fly.) This can also mean, give the bird the feathers it needs to fly.

That’s what we want to do for our young people with these home libraries.