Source: IGIHE.com | Published on September 17, 2012
Drakkar is working in cooperation with the Rwandan Education Board (REB) and the Educational Development Center in three districts in the Southern Province in Rwanda. The project’s goal and theory of change are to encourage a culture of reading in Rwanda by: providing support to, and training of, school-based mentors to improve teachers’ instructional practices, including through the incorporation of read aloud approaches; Increasing access to Kinyarwanda storybooks in targeted schools and local bookstores; and developing local capacity to produce Kinyarwanda stories, including through a national story writing competition designed to develop a children’s book market for authors.
- Lydie Hakizimana is co-founder and Managing Director of Drakkar Limited, a specialist reseller and distributor of educational textbooks. It all started back in 2006 when this avid bookworm decided to follow her passion and opened a small bookshop. Before long, her entrepreneurial instincts had her developing relationships with numerous publishing companies. Eventually, she struck a deal that was to be the making of her company with UK publisher, Pearson Education. Drakkar rapidly evolved into a leading educational textbooks reseller in Rwanda, becoming an important enabler of her country's vision for building a knowledge-based economy. Today, Lydie manages 45 employees and thirty part-time distributors covering the five provinces of Rwanda. Lydie has also added exclusive distributor deals with Longman, Heinemann and Penguin to her Pearson contract.