This project was inspired by the awesome children books my Mom was sending that included things from children atlases to Goodnight Moon to colorful reforestation efforts in Kenya to detailed information about Baobab trees and the insects and animals that benefit from them, including people.
The idea was to put together a box of really good books that kids would be interested in and able to read to encourage reading. This box would travel on our mail run which occurs every other month (Dec, Feb, Apr, etc) to places where really good books and resources for reading and learning are hard to come by . Several people try to embark on library projects but in my experience, several of these communities are not quite ready yet to appreciate the value of a library to justify all the time and money that goes into them. On the other hand, several students, even if it's just one or two, do benefit from those types of project which can have unknown positive ripple effects.
I talked about Words on Wheels with the program director for the Education sector, she was super excited, I wrote a proposal and then essentially handed everything off to the PCVL, Peace Corps Volunteer Leader, for education since he's been focusing on improving literacy and since he lives in the capital with much more access to resources than myself.
We ran a pilot test this last mail run in October. Packets of five or so books ranging from early beginner to moderately advanced went around the CRR with feedback papers. In addition to the books there were study tools like alphabet flashcards and or a small chalkboard to practice handwriting and a note from Ed volunteers with some tips on how best to use books for teaching purposes. The second idea is that several of us health and environment volunteers care about improving literacy also but aren't going to necessarily go out of our ways to achieve this. But if a nice little packet of books and resources come to us for a period of two months, between the mail runs, we can do better to focus efforts helping tutor our siblings or others in the community that are interested. Because it is a small concentration of books, and because they aren't really being used without the supervision of the volunteer, this ensures, Inshallah, a decent life for the book which would not be the case if left to the child alone for even a short period of time.
For me, with my books at my site with my kids, the pilot was a huge success. Even though I had some fantastic books already myself, they were all quite above the reading levels of my host siblings. These books that came in the Words on Wheels packets brought to us perfect beginning books that my host siblings were not only able read but able to read, but master in the time we spent focusing on them. This built confidence which may perhaps further increase interest in reading.
In addition to this project, some volunteers are working on creating simple and easy stories in the local language or simply translating already existing stories into the local language to peak interest that way.
As we say here, we're on the work slowly slowly.
The idea was to put together a box of really good books that kids would be interested in and able to read to encourage reading. This box would travel on our mail run which occurs every other month (Dec, Feb, Apr, etc) to places where really good books and resources for reading and learning are hard to come by . Several people try to embark on library projects but in my experience, several of these communities are not quite ready yet to appreciate the value of a library to justify all the time and money that goes into them. On the other hand, several students, even if it's just one or two, do benefit from those types of project which can have unknown positive ripple effects.
I talked about Words on Wheels with the program director for the Education sector, she was super excited, I wrote a proposal and then essentially handed everything off to the PCVL, Peace Corps Volunteer Leader, for education since he's been focusing on improving literacy and since he lives in the capital with much more access to resources than myself.
We ran a pilot test this last mail run in October. Packets of five or so books ranging from early beginner to moderately advanced went around the CRR with feedback papers. In addition to the books there were study tools like alphabet flashcards and or a small chalkboard to practice handwriting and a note from Ed volunteers with some tips on how best to use books for teaching purposes. The second idea is that several of us health and environment volunteers care about improving literacy also but aren't going to necessarily go out of our ways to achieve this. But if a nice little packet of books and resources come to us for a period of two months, between the mail runs, we can do better to focus efforts helping tutor our siblings or others in the community that are interested. Because it is a small concentration of books, and because they aren't really being used without the supervision of the volunteer, this ensures, Inshallah, a decent life for the book which would not be the case if left to the child alone for even a short period of time.
For me, with my books at my site with my kids, the pilot was a huge success. Even though I had some fantastic books already myself, they were all quite above the reading levels of my host siblings. These books that came in the Words on Wheels packets brought to us perfect beginning books that my host siblings were not only able read but able to read, but master in the time we spent focusing on them. This built confidence which may perhaps further increase interest in reading.
In addition to this project, some volunteers are working on creating simple and easy stories in the local language or simply translating already existing stories into the local language to peak interest that way.
As we say here, we're on the work slowly slowly.
I assume the books are in English and the children are learning English with the help books.
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