Literacy Project

Amina's Gift has embarked on a new Literacy Project to teach children how to read. The project is dedicated to teaching children to read in English, building libraries, and encouraging a reading culture.

Our new project will partner with the successful Happy Readers program, which teaches children in primary school to read using a series of books that are colorful, fun, and culturally relevant. The program has successfully taught almost a million children on the African continent to read in English. Developing literacy in children helps them become more aware of important social issues covered in our stories, and consequently be proactive members of their communities – a virtuous circle. Our project will provide the Happy Readers’ “Learn-to-Read” books and teachers’ resources to primary schools in Zimbabwe, backed up by teacher training and ongoing monitoring and evaluation. The books use African wild animals as characters and are brightly colored on durable gloss paper with large, clear, colorful pictures on each page to illustrate the stories.

We will build libraries to give kids a bright, safe place to read. These buildings have lots of books, desks, and chairs. Equally important, they have solar-powered lights that allow for evening reading. The libraries are freestanding buildings in which students can read and study individually or in groups, away from the noise of village life.

A reading culture emerges from a group of people who love to read. We provide lots of books, the creation of reading clubs, and volunteers who share their passion for reading with primary and secondary school kids. The path will always be bright for kids who can read.

We agree with the founders of Happy Readers: "If education is the path out of poverty, then literacy is the torch that lights the path."