On the 25th of March 2018, the third World Literacy Summit was held in Oxford, United Kingdom. The theme was closing the global literacy gap in the 21st century. It served as a unique opportunity for delegates to collaborate, share ideas, learn and be united to close the global literacy gap in the 21st century. The Summit provided a platform for debate, discussion, and sharing of knowledge between some of the world’s most ardent literacy and educational leaders, institutions, organizations and pioneers.
In our globalized world, close to 20% of the population is illiterate. Which means that 1 out of 5 people in the world can’t read or write. The World Literacy Foundation was founded to help eradicate this staggering statistic through the promotion of literacy and education, and the provision of learning resources and teaching materials. The World Literacy Foundation is a global not-for-profit organization working to lift young people out of poverty through the power of literacy. We believe that every child should be able to read and write so they can enjoy lifelong learning and empowerment. We are committed to building strong partnerships, providing assistance to grassroots literacy organizations and maximizing our impact through innovative solutions that bring quality education materials to classrooms across the world.
We Love Reading received the award for a (Significant Contributions by a Literacy Organization), on March 26 2018 at the World Literacy Summit in Oxford University. The award was given by her Royal Highness Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands to Dr. Rana Dajani, CEO & founder of We Love Reading. This award acknowledged and profiled the We Love Reading efforts in supporting literacy among children in Jordan and 36 countries around the world.
We Love Reading is a Jordanian based initiative, created in 2006 by Rana Dajani. The ‘We Love Reading’ (WLR) programme uses a grassroots community based model to foster the love of reading among children. The programme involves local volunteers who organize regular read-aloud sessions in public community spaces by the use of books that are age-appropriate, attractive, neutral content-wise and in local languages. The programme has enabled the creation of a virtual community through a mobile application allowing learners and trainers to share experiences and exchange knowledge to provide, maintain and improve the sustainability, quality, monitoring and evaluation of the programme. WLR is a simple, accessible, flexible, cost efficient, sustainable program that has spread to 36 countries and become a social movement. In Jordan alone, the project has trained 3,000 women and opened 2,000 libraries, benefitting more than 50,000 children. We license our program to organizations to implement with in their geographical location. The WLR program is already implemented in Jordan and Ethiopia with support from UNHCR, UNICEF, USAID and others. Our program has been studied rigorously by Yale, University of Chicago, Brown University and others. The WLR program has won multiple awards: Synergos 2009, Clinton Global Initiative 2010, WISE 2014, Star foundation 2015, Amplify Open IDEO 2015, His majesty king Abdullah award 2014. Children books. WLR develops children books that are in the Arabic language, using a fun approach that are educational at the same time. We cover the following themes: environment (energy conservation, water conservation, anti-littering), Refugees, disabilities, social cohesion, non-violence and gender. We have conducted RCT research on the impact of these books on changing behavior of children and have published our work.
Support the cause and be a part of the change. You can find more information on our website (www.welovereading.org), or you can visit the following link to take a look at the case study done on the initiative: (We Love Reading).