We Love Reading participated in the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature which took a place from February 1 until February 6. This year, the theme of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature was ‘Old Friends’, with authors and speakers from earlier editions returning to meet their fans.
The founder of We Love Reading Prof. Rana Dajani who’s also a speaker at McGill University and the MIT Institute conducted 3 sessions as following:
The first session titled “The Biology of Friendship” was held on the 2nd of February, in this session Prof. Dajani tried to answer the following question from a biological perspective: How do people interact with one another? And how does face-to-face interaction influence our interpersonal relations?
She explained the psychological effects of friendships on the human body, as proven in recent academic studies. During this session, Prof. Dajani used her in-depth research and insightful scientific perspective to tackle vital issues, including how we form friendships, the impact of reading on cognitive activity.
The second session which was held on the 4th of February entitled: “Write your journey today! Master class with Prof. Rana Dajani”
where Prof. Dajani reflected on the stages of her life, from the streets of Amman to the city of Lowa, and from Jordanian refugee camps to Harvard University classrooms. She also shared the difficulties and challenges she has experienced – and overcome – as a woman, in her journey to success and the story behind We Love Reading.
The final session took a place on the 5th of February included a screening of “The Neighborhood Storyteller” documentary based on true events that delves into the life of We Love Reading Ambassador Asmaa Al-rashed who took the We Love Reading training, and had a life changing experience when she launches a reading club for young refugee girls residing in the Zaatari Camp in Jordan.
The film, presented by the Big Heart Foundation, produced by Home storyteller.
The screening of the film was preceded by a panel with Fairouz Taqi Adeen and Bisan Salameh from UNICEF and Dr. Rana Dajani, Founder of We Love Reading.
During the screening Prof. Rana shared Asmaa’s story and how she started her own initiative after taking the WLR training and how other ambassadors become a change maker in their community through We Love Reading training.
Bisan Salameh is a Private Sector Partnerships Officer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Fairouz Taqi Adeen is the Chief of Partnerships and Resource Mobilization at the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in the Gulf Regional Office.
All proceeds from this session went to support refugees and humanitarian causes at the Big Heart Foundation in Sharjah.