Reading for Life - Helping Children Learn to Read
During our 16 years of work in Guatemala, Child Aid has helped impoverished rural communities establish 35 libraries and 14 computer centers.
Today, we work with many of these communities, and others, to increase educational opportunity for children. We do this through our flagship literacy program, Reading for Life. It is a unique, community-based program, predicated on grassroots partnership, long-term commitment and the involvement of local teachers, librarians, school directors and parents.
Our Reading for Life Goals for 2012
- Bring library and classroom literacy activities to more than 8,500 children in 42 rural, mostly indigenous communities in the highlands of Guatemala.
- Extend the program to 18 additional public schools, providing structured reading activities to the children in these schools for the first time.
- Provide training in literacy instruction and reading promotion to over 350 rural teachers in 42 schools.
- Provide targeted educational support to 350 indigenous Mayan girls who are at high risk of dropping out of school, becoming pregnant as teenagers, and entering adulthood without basic reading skills.
- Provide training, materials, and technical support to 50 librarians in small towns and villages.
- Work closely with 21 local libraries to implement or continue our out-of-school reading program, Adventures in Reading, which engages children in reading activities during Guatemala’s three-month school break.
- Distribute over 20,000 donated Spanish-language children’s books to schools and libraries throughout the Guatemalan Highland region.
- Conduct over 1,000 individualized follow-up training sessions with librarians and teachers to monitor and support their work in carrying out Reading for Life activities. These visits ensure that the unique needs and concerns of our partners are addressed.
Reading for Life – Achieving Our Goals
Child Aid has a staff of 14 in Guatemala. We believe in supporting the communities and countries in which we work by hiring local personnel. In Guatemala, all but two of our staff members are Guatemalan.
Child Aid Staff
Our National Director, who is responsible for carrying out all programs in Guatemala, reports directly to the Executive Director in the United States. Child Aid also has a Program Director, a Coordinator of Library Services and six indigenous Regional Reading Promoters. The Reading Promoters conduct librarian and teacher trainings and work one-on-one with teachers and librarians to ensure the implementation of the programs in the schools and libraries. A key component of their job is to help under-trained teachers teach reading more effectively and to give them ways to engage children in the books Child Aid delivers. As the program continues to grow, Child Aid will need to hire additional Reading Promoters, as well as Regional Program Coordinators and support staff.
Staff Librarians
In order for a library to be a vital resource for a community, it needs a librarian who is able to attend trainings, implement reading programs and keep the library doors open. Many communities cannot afford to pay a full time librarian. Child Aid therefore supplies full or partial salaries to librarians to ensure the facilities we create or improve stay open for children. As we expand into additional communities, Child Aid will continue to supplement librarian salaries, as well as give scholarships to older children who can assist the librarians.
In order to continue to grow the program and provide the level of support that we are providing, consistent support by donors as well as grants from a variety of funding sources becomes critical. Child Aid’s US-based staff works diligently to obtain funding from new sources and to diversify our book donation base in order to maintain a consistent supply of quality children’s books. Please take a moment to see our list of corporate and foundation partners.
We owe much of our continued success to the community and organization partnerships that Child Aid forms on the ground in Guatemala. Click here to read more about Child Aid’s Community and Organization Partnerships.
Click here to see How Child Aid Measures the Success of the Reading for Life Program
Click here to Discover How Child Aid Implements the Reading for Life Program
