Short story workshops, organized by Khotoat volunteers, are considered one of the great activities which support children to maintain their mother language (Arabic Language) and reinforce their skills in addition to identifying the child with his/her roots and culture. These workshops help in improving the listening skills of children in general as many of them suffer from long term concentration and they get bored quickly. And here comes the role of these short stories which contribute in elevating their focus and understanding. Short stories also help to enrich the imagination and the creativity of the children.
Short story workshops, which are organized through Khotoat by writers in child literature, are regarded as important and vital activities for the Arab children who live abroad.
Hani Shweikh, a story writer and a volunteer in this field, talks about his experience in working within Khotoat to organize children story workshops saying “the use of Arabic for kids who live out of the home country is restricted to home usage, acquaintances, or friends who belong to the Arabic community in addition to some unorganized religion lessons. And this makes the Arabic language a dry formal language sometimes and unknown to children at other times. This activity plays an important role in bringing the language closer to the hearts of children through involving an interesting short story framework”.
