{A great man once said that: “An ordinary man can… surround himself with two thousand books… and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy .”}

{{In this spirit, I welcome you to the U.S. Embassy’s Information Resource Center – our library – for the launch of the second annual Everybody Reads Rwanda campaign. }}

The government of Rwanda places great emphasis on building a culture of reading, and we at the U.S. Embassy fully support these efforts.

We have planned this campaign to promote reading, not only as a solitary, individual activity, but as something that can be shared by many.

The idea of Everybody Reads Rwanda is to get as many people as possible reading and discussing the same book – as a community. There’s a special energy that is generated when hundreds of people all take part in such an activity. Reading can be fun and exciting, especially when we read together.

We want to demonstrate this. To do so, we are distributing over 500 copies of the same book – which I’ll name in a moment – to students at secondary schools and universities, to youth clubs, professors, journalists, and asking them to host book discussions over a two week period from May 13-24.

In addition, we will have a number of copies of the book available here at the Embassy for anyone who wishes to participate, and we will be hosting public discussion sessions both here and across the street at the American Corner at the Rwanda Library Services several times over the course of the two-week campaign.

The book that we have chosen this year is The Five People You Meet in Heaven by American author Mitch Albom. It’s the story of Eddie, a war veteran trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park.

His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret. Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people.

These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed his path forever. One by one, Eddie’s five people illuminate the unseen connections of his earthly life, as he desperately seeks the answer to the last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure? The answer, which comes from the most unlikely of sources, is inspirational.

Why did we select this particular book? The themes of The Five People You Meet in Heaven are timeless and inspiring. It is a compelling novel that invites discussion and sparks debate on the themes and lessons of the book: sacrifice, forgiveness, the power of love, and, are there really any random acts in life? – themes to which we can all relate. It is a book which will appeal to people of all ages, from secondary school on up. One which we think you will want to read and share with others.

I hope that at this point you are wondering how to get a copy of the book The Five People You Meet in Heaven. While we are providing copies of the novel to select groups around the country, we invite everyone to join us in this campaign. The U.S. Embassy is providing the book to readers at no cost. We only ask that you participate in at least one discussion.

Books are available today and tomorrow in the U.S. Embassy library for check-out and at the American Corner at the Rwanda Tourism University College in Rubavu. Starting next week, this library will be closed for two weeks in order to expand the existing space to support more patrons.

So from April 29 – May 9, but you can pick up a book out in the Embassy lobby from 3-5pm Monday through Thursday (we will be closed Friday afternoons). To ensure there are ample opportunities to discuss the book, we have scheduled several public discussion events. A schedule of events is available here today.

Thank you and I hope you will join us and this community of readers.

I now invite Dr. Joyce Musabe, Deputy Director General of the Rwanda Education Board in charge of National Curriculum Pedagogical Material to make remarks.

{author is US ambassador to Rwanda}