At Worldreader we’ve spent the past six months looking deeply at our work and coming up with a very ambitious plan to make the biggest difference possible. It’s called “Reading into the Future,” a campaign that aims to use digital books to unlock the potential of 15 million people around the world—and puts us on track to touch one billion more. It’s got four parts:

• Building the largest culturally relevant, free digital library in the world;
• Establishing large-scale digital reading programs in schools and libraries to reach one million students;
• Building and distributing cell-phone apps to get to 14 million readers;
• Investing in our own infrastructure and people so we can serve millions of readers around the world.

Together we’ve made a difference to hundreds of thousands of children by giving them access to digital books wherever they are. One of my favorite stories is of Kenyan teacher Joseck Amwayi, who says: “I had only one option in life: either learn, get some education, go to school…or die.” He goes on to talk about the difference e-readers make in his classroom.

And to see the difference our work can make on an entire school system, read through our just-published 18-month research study that shows how we’ve lifted kids’ reading levels dramatically. It’s available here.

In the coming months, I look forward to sharing Reading into the Future with you, our closest donors. And I hope you’ll join me in supporting this plan with a three-year contribution. We’re at an important tipping-point for Worldreader, and I look forward to your helping us make a bigger difference together.

Yours,

David Risher

President and Co-Founder

Worldreader

Over 700 students were involved in the study from eight different schools. A handful of staff members and volunteers all worked with 16 different test facilitators (enumerators) who worked one-on-one with the students, meeting with each of the students two or three times to assess their progress over the course of the study.

For Sarah, the last few months of compiling two-years worth of data into one final report meant sequestering herself to a home office where she spent hours of time alone with her computer, plenty of spreadsheets and lots of numbers. Lots and lots of numbers.

“Proper program assessment,” Sarah Jaffe will tell you with a smile, “takes a huge amount of time and effort.”

It also takes a quirky personality to maintain your sanity through literally hundreds of isolated hours studying data. Sarah, as it turns out, discovered a little trick to help keep things moving along.

“Action movie soundtracks,” Sarah says. “They’re amazing! They make everything you do seem really important and urgent.”

And in truth, the Sarah’s work – and that of her entire team – really is really important and urgent. As a result of her efforts, Worldreader is now armed with the type of research needed to get the attention of serious funders and government organizations that will help us scale-up our e-reading programs to millions of students.

The idea came from a magazine featuring a story about an entrepreneur harnessing the power of low cost solar in the developing world. Dr. Cynthia Hammer, a Worldreader supporter in the Seattle area, saw a connection to e-readers and invited president David Risher to talk about what it would take to get solar power to the schools using Worldreader’s programs.

One conversation turned into many, and what was a lofty idea turned into the Worldreader Solar Initiative. Cynthia made a generous contribution to cover the testing and trial implementation of solar solutions, including staff salaries in the US and Kenya to manage the project.

She admits, at first her husband was reticent. Had solar power progressed enough to be affordable in the remote places Worldreader has reached with e-books? Sharon Langevin, Worldreader’s Senior Manager of Product Development, began to figure to that out.

Sharon researched what cost-effective products were already available. She reached out to consumer solar producers in East Africa, met with experts in Nairobi, and then returned to the US to run a series of trials on products in San Francisco.

Back in Kenya, Neema Afwande, Worldreader’s new Solar Project Assistant, ran trials in Kisumu. After several months of testing, two companies qualified for field-testing: Barefoot Power and BBoxx.

Eight schools and libraries with Worldreader programs agreed to be part of the trials, and the results are now coming in. Sharon and Neema are combing through logs the schools kept, tracking things like number of devices charged and weather conditions. So far, we’ve seen that the solar panels are being used regulary, and more importantly, are proving a practical solution for keeping e-readers charged in the field.

So what’s next? Worldreader will soon have an inexpensive solar add-on available for e-readers going out to schools and libraries across sub-Saharan Africa.

Cynthia is excited to see those results come in. Without power, kids cannot have access to digital books. Solar power brings books, and books bring an education.

“True reading educates the self,” Cynthia says, “Bring that to people, and you allow them to develop their potential in ways that would otherwise not be allowed.”

We couldn’t agree more. Thank you, Cynthia, for bringing your dream of solar power to Worldreader!

Have a ground-breaking idea for bringing books to all that we haven’t thought of?

Let us know! Contact brian@worldreader.org today.

Along with Worldreader Kenya staff Joan Mwachi-Amolo and Muthoni Muhunyo, Alex helped lead three sessions with kids to promote reading on mobile phones. It sounded something like this:

“Do you like to read?” Kids: “YES!”

“Do you like your mobile phone?” Kids: “YES!”

“Do you like to read on your mobile phone?” Kids: “Huh?”

It turned out to be a great opportunity to turn kids onto the possibilities of reading beyond paper books. East Africa has one of Worldreader’s largest concentrations of Worldreader Mobile users (as many as 30,000 users every month), and getting kids reading on their phones gives them more books, in their language, than many are able to access otherwise.

While at the festival, Worldreader staff had the opportunity to meet Okwiri Oduor, whose Caine Prize winning story “My Father’s Head” can be read on Worldreader Mobile. They also led two sessions for writers on self-publishing.

While in Africa, Alex spoke on another panel at the East African Footnote Summit entitled “Digital Publishing Solutions for Emerging Markets” attended the Kenya International Book Fair hosted by the Kenya Publishers’ Association (a big supporter of ours), and touch base with some of the dozens of East African publishers Worldreader works with. Alex and Muthoni also found some time to work with Translators Without Borders to get vital information about the Ebola crisis translated for publication and promotion on Worldreader Mobile.

You can read Alex’s thoughts about Worldreader, digitization, and helping to create greater access to books in the Nigeria International Book Fair’s 2014 Catalog.

Building a movement and culture of digital reading takes a lot of imagination, and the support of donors like you is what allows our staff to garner the support of publishers and authors, and yes, even kids, in making “books for all” a reality.

Sponsoring Digitization and Translation of Local Content

You can help translate or digitize individual books for the first time ever. If you are interested in sponsoring digitization and translation of books, please contact brian@worldreader.org.

John and Kristin Clark invited guests into their stunning Manhattan home for a Worldreader fundraiser on November 11th.

Our new supporters, Terry Atkinson and Kathy Taylor, closed our event season with a reception in their Rancho Santa Fe home in Southern California on November 20th.

Collectively, these events raised over $300,000 to support brining more e-books to children and families in the developing world! Worldreader is in awe of the generous donations our event guests made, and the continuing conversations that will surely lead to new partnerships in 2015.

Hosting a Worldreader Event in Your Venue

If you are interested in hosting an event on behalf of Worldreader in your own home or office, please contact brian@worldreader.org.