By Jennifer Baljko

There are things we take as a given. Things we know because we live them every day.

We know, for instance, there are not enough printed books for every student in Ghana or anywhere else in the developing world. A teacher told us that he has only eight textbooks for his 50 students, and in many other classrooms, the stats aren’t any better.

We also believe that giving families and schools access to electronic books via e-readers will change people’s lives, and that by working with local and international publishers we can offer kids more choice in the books they read.

We have to remind ourselves that this may not be intuitive for everyone else. Telling people how e-books are downloaded via mobile phone networks and land in the hands of kids in the world’s most under-served markets sometimes elicits a shoulder shrug or a “That sounds nice” facial expression. So, it’s incredibly encouraging when folks move beyond the logistical complexities and a bright light bulb switches on — and stays on. That’s when we know the “Books for All” idea really sinks in.

Elizabeth Wood, our director of digital publishing, and other members of the Worldreader team had another one of those moments a couple weeks ago in Accra, Ghana. After a face-to-face roundtable discussion, heart-to-heart individual meetings, and a field trip out to the schools, representatives from 10 Ghanaian publishers saw first-hand the overwhelming need for books in rural districts and the impact together we’re already having on children’s lives. Now, more than ever, they want to help move the revolution even further along.

Although we’ve been engaging with them for many months and they have led the way in becoming key Worldreader partners, there was something that tipped the scales this time. An emotional connection was bridged. They got to actually see kids read on e-readers, and hear teachers talk about reading improvements.

“I have read about [e-readers] online so I knew something about them, though I have never physically seen one. I also did not have a practical knowledge of how it works,” Faisal Ibrahim, EPP’s national market coordinator, corporate market, told us. “I was skeptical about its effective use in remote parts of the country by young school pupils until our visit to [the primary school]. I was amazed at the way children were confident in the usage of the device. Their attachment to the device was remarkable.”

“Partnering with organizations like Worldreader will have a positive impact on education in Ghana and Africa. Inadequate access to educational materials, like books, has been one of the major causes of poor performance in schools,” Faisal added. “Worldreader’s device puts a whole library on a device. This will greatly enhance studies and learning. The future will be brighter if every school going child in Africa has a Worldreader.”

Elizabeth recounted an on-the-ground conversation between the publishers and school officials exactly on that topic. Matilda, the headmistress at one of junior high schools participating in the Worldreader pilot, was asked by one of the publishers, point blank, “Is this working?”  She answered, “We have two classes, A and B.  Before Worldreader, the B class was much stronger than the A class. So we chose to give the e-reader to the A [class], so that it might help them to catch up to B. Now, you will see for yourselves. The A class has passed the B class; they are now the stronger ones. What we really need is this program for our whole school.”

But, as Worldreader knows, it’s not just about giving African kids access to international books or regional favorites. Kids the world over would appreciate access to African literature as well. Publishers recognize how Worldreader assists in closing that gap. “Our stories are just beginning to be told,” commented another publisher.

“The project gives exposure to the books, far beyond the borders of Ghana,” added Akoss Ofori-Mensah, managing director of Sub-Saharan Publishers,  ”Just [a few weeks ago], a librarian in Florida bought 75 copies of The Cross Drums for a cultural exchange project between 6th graders at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Fla. and 6th graders at Ramseyer School in Agogo, Ghana. She said she found out about the book through Worldreader.”

Of course, there will be many more meetings of the minds like this in the coming months. Swapping ideas and partnering with progressive-minded publishers is how we will reach even more children and families around the world. We’re looking forward to those discussions.

Read more about the impact Worldreader’s African publishing partners are having here , and please check out our growing list of African titles.

If you’re a publisher and would like to get involved with Worldreader’s “Book For All” mission, contact Elizabeth Wood at elizabeth@worldreader.org.

By Zev Lowe

You’ve heard of Poetry Slams? It’s when poets compete on stage and perform their work. They’re usually lively affairs, and everyone walks away loving the ode and speaking in iambic pentameter.

Last week, teachers and students in Ghana gave this idea a Worldreader twist. We’re not quite ready for the big time (yet), but we’ve uncovered a few likely rhyme masters in the making; one day, maybe they’ll be up on stage spinning out their own spoken words.

With Worldreader’s support, volunteers worked with some of our primary and junior high school students and talked about self-expression through poetry.

The day started with unstructured reading time, something the kids rarely get. School time is focused on lesson plans, and when kids go home, they have chores and other things to do. Leisure time is limited, and reading for fun, well, sometimes, that’s limited, too.

Volunteers read a story with students. Some students read out loud. Others read silently. Others simply discussed the stories they’d read and volunteers kept the dialog going.

Based on our experience with Vacation School, we knew kids would attend this extra session. They’re hungry to learn. But, we’re always surprised by how many kids actually show up. The classroom was packed! And, it wasn’t just with our iREAD kids. As usual, lots of non-iREAD students clustered around the windows and doors and peered in. One girl had a baby on her back. Everyone wants in, and we’re happy they came and stayed the whole time. We’re all the wiser for it.

After the reading “warm-up,” one of our star volunteers, Mrs. Polansky, taught the kids about poetry. She read a poem about an elephant and then showed how the text appeared like a tall skinny building — a few words per line on the glossy pages.

She also read an original poem she’d written about how she was felt coming to teach for the first time that day. She took the lesson even further. Reflecting life’s dilemmas, she explained how some questions have one right answer, like 65+35 equals 100, but other questions have no right answer, for instance, “What is poetry?”

With that in mind, the students took pieces of paper and jammed on their own literary greatness. It was confusing at first. Figuring out poetry is a tough thing (for most of us), and, for many, this was their first crack at it. Soon, they got the hang of it, and they wrote about themselves, their interests, and even about having hope.

The volunteers picked four excellent poems (pictured below) and read them out loud to the whole class. There was a round of applause (the special local Ghanaian clap…we’ll show it to you one day), and, as the session ended, lots of waving when the volunteers boarded their mini-bus and a mad dash for post-poetry refreshments.

Days like this make me wonder, given the chance, could one of these kids be the next Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, or Pablo Neruda? Maybe with a few more “Worldreader Poetry Slams” we’ll find out.

 

 

Every day, Worldreader receives e-mails and inquiries from groups interested in implementing e-reader programs like ours. For sometime we have been working on a way to extend our reach and respond to these requests, because like us these groups understand that e-readers have the potential to utterly change the way the developing world reads. By forming partnerships with those who share our passion and goals we can make more books accessible to more children. Presently, we are in the process of beginning a program that would make such partnerships possible.

The global interest we are seeing from potential partners echoes the conviction we had early on that the e-reader was the solution to an ongoing problem in the developing world, that of a lack of reading material.  A single device can contain thousands of books, magazines and newspapers and new items can be added in seconds anywhere there is a cellphone signal. In addition to these obvious benefits e-readers often contain built in dictionaries and text to speech capabilities that make learning new words easier. Not only does this mean a better education for countless students, this might mean the beginning of a revolution in publishing for the developing world. Digital publishing promises to open up new and exciting markets in regions plagued by high transportation costs and low literacy rates.

Worldreader therefore brings e-readers into primary and secondary schools in impoverished parts of the developing world. To do this we work with the local government, the schools in question and the communities they reside in. We also work with local and international publishers to fill the e-readers with relevant and exciting material.

Through our iRead project in Ghana  we have to date distributed over 60,000 books and have seen impressive results: children in classes with e-readers read more, their fluency increases quickly, and the teachers and community are extraordinarily enthusiastic to expand the program.  We believe these results can extend throughout the developing world and that a partnership model is the best way to make this happen.

In fact we already have strong evidence that a successful partnership model is possible. Earlier this year we partnered with The Kilgoris Project at Ntimigom School in Kenya to map out how partner projects in the future could work.  Six months in, we are seeing impressive results, detailed in this report.

With the success of our partnership in Kenya, we are ready to begin reaching out to new medium-sized organizations (under 250 students). If you would be interested in becoming one of Worldreader’s partners, we’d like to hear from you, if you meet all of the following criteria:

1)   You represent a school (Primary or Secondary) in the developing world with flexibility, enthusiasm, and operational support.   Implementing a program with new technology will not be without its challenges. We are looking for teachers and team members with agility, adaptability and passion.

2)   You have a qualified local implementation and project management team with sufficient technical skills to run the program, as well as access to electricity.  Either WiFi or GSM mobile-phone coverage is important for receiving new content.

3)   You can fund this project 100%. Worldreader provides discounted hardware, training and support expertise, and access to hundreds of books, but we do not provide direct funding to partners. For budgeting purposes, you should plan on allocating between $250 and $290 per device (including the discounted costs of hardware, books, shipping, cases, lights, training, and support) in direct costs.

In addition to the above prerequisites, Worldreader will prioritize applicants with established relationships with local government and publishers.

If you meet the above criteria and would like to become a Worldreader Partner please fill out our application form here.

If you have any questions about this blog or the application process please email: partners@worldreader.org.

We look forward to hearing from you. Books for All!

By David Risher

Stephen King says that when fans asked him where his ideas came from, he answers: “Utica. They come from Utica, New York.”  So here’s my version: ”My ideas come from the dentist’s office.”

A few weeks ago, I took my younger daughter to a new dentist.  She wasn’t a big fan, but what’re you gonna to do– you’ve got to go to the dentist sometimes, right? Anyway, you get a toothbrush at the end– that’s pretty great, isn’t it?

Well, not really. And I thought back to when I was a kid, neither was the little treasure chest of plastic goodies that my own dentist (Dr. Starr) offered. But things have changed.  Because today in 2011, dentists have new tools in their tray.  When you become a patient of a newfangled dentist (Dr. Cooke), you get a reward card with a point system for doing dental-hygiene- (and dentist-) friendly things:

• Great oral hygiene: 2 points
• Arriving on-time to appointments: 4 points
• Wearing your “Brace Face” T-shirt to your appointment: 2 points
• Referring a friend or family member: 250 points.  (OK, I think I see what’s going on here.)

Accumulate enough points and you received gift certificates for Toys R Us (makes sense), Red Lobster (hmmmm…), Hollister (holy temple of teenager-hood), or Baskin Robins (ahem.)  It’s all tracked on a web site.

The thing is, Dr. Cooke’s system works.  In about 20 seconds, my daughter went from reluctant to enthusiastic, and it’s still true weeks later. When appointment time comes, she gathers up her t-shirt, brushes her teeth, and hops to it. Success all around.

What idea did this inspire? Well, we want the students to take good care of their e-readers. They’re rocking our world with how much they’re reading: I was in Ghana a few weeks ago and met Kate Okanta, a student who has read more than 90 e-books in our program. (She wasn’t alone: many had read 50 books or more.) But that has put stress on the e-readers, which means they sometimes break.

So to reduce breakage, we’ve come up with an incentive system to reward good e-reader “hygiene.” Kids who take care of their e-readers will get points to buy more books, in what will be a virtuous cycle. Our man Zev heads to Ghana next week to begin to put this into action– stay tuned for his report.

Our mission is to give unprecedented access to books, so children in the developing world can improve their lives. But that doesn’t only happen in Ghana and Kenya– it can happen in the dentist’s office. So on your next visit, watch out: inspiration could strike at any moment!