Read with Me operates nine centers across Kermanshah: four community libraries and five centers embedded in orphanages and child protection facilities. Trained facilitators — many of them local women who came up through the program themselves — guide children through literacy, storytelling, art, and guided reading, all built around a child-centered, hands-on approach.In wartime, the role of these centers has expanded. Facilitators have received training in trauma support, helping children process fear, regulate their emotions, and talk openly about what they’re experiencing. For many, the library has become one of the only steady, familiar places left.
One story stands out: the bombing lasted minutes; the fear didn’t. When it stopped, eight-year-old Arad’s home in Kermanshah was gone. He ran to the library instead — only to find it shattered too. “I was afraid the library had collapsed,” he told the librarian. “I was afraid you had died.” Then he broke down.Together they sat in the rubble and read a saved storybook. Slowly, Arad smiled again. Before leaving, he gathered the library’s alphabet letters and set each one back in place. “We lost our home,” he said, “but we can build everything again. Even the library.”Days later, in an Emotions Activity, Arad looked into a mirror. War had taken his house — not his hope. Looking back at him was a smile.
Blossom Hill has established a $25,000 emergency relief fund for Read with Me — to keep centers open, facilitators trained and present, and books on shelves for children navigating one of the hardest chapters of their young lives.