GA Maktaba: Reading Goals

GA operates its sport for development programmes in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Qatar National Vision 2030, to promote sustainability, inclusion, and gender equality. GA’s unique methodology utilises the power of football to impart crucial life skills including communication, leadership, teamwork and compassion to youth and communities in need across the globe. Since its launch, GA, in collaboration with key partners, has reached and positively impacted over 1 million lives in 75 countries and counting.

The Generation Amazing Children’s Book collection was created as a part of Reading Goals, a Generation Amazing legacy project developed in collaboration with Maktaba Children’s Library. Reading Goals uses the platform of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ to create greater awareness of the importance of literacy and to foster a lifelong love of reading for global youth skill development.

"It’s long been understood that promoting literacy is essential tool for international development but what is often overlooked is the power of reading for pleasure to support the emotional development of children by increasing empathy and promoting tolerance, creating a better world for all."

Sarah Champa, Founder, Maktaba

Our work began with publishing 12 bi-lingual Arabic/English children’s books that use stories with football at their heart to teach about the UN Sustainable Development Goals of gender equity, good health and wellbeing, responsible consumption and production, climate action and life below water. All 12 books are authored and illustrated by Qataris or Qatar residents bringing Qatari voices to children around the world. 

Since their publication we have reached over 2022 children through story times in schools, brought story time and educational enrichment activities to 1000s of children in collaboration with Qatar Foundation International, the National Museum of Qatar, the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha International Film Festival, World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) and EcoKids. We are especially proud to have been able to keep story times going through the COVID-19 Pandemic through various online book clubs.

After Kabul fell and the Afghanistan evacuation effort brought more than 100,000 Afghans through Qatar, Reading Goals stepped up by providing assistance and socio-emotional support to more than 1,000 children. We took the reading goals model and put it into action, establishing a safe space for evacuees and their families and delivering over 1500 hours of reading and sports for development programming to over 7000 evacuees with the help of over 150 volunteers from 17 different countries.