Can you feel it?! Sparks are flying here at LitWorld, and we hope you feel the electric energy too. Today officially marks 100 Days until World Read Aloud Day® (WRAD), our biggest celebration of the year.
Mark your calendars for February 5th, 2024, and get ready to join us for a full day of magic as we celebrate the joy of reading aloud.
Dear LitWorld Friend,
In 2011, the United Nations declared October 11th as the International Day of the Girl, a day dedicated to recognizing the rights of girls. Since then, LitWorld has celebrated this day, rallying our global community to join our "Stand Up for Girls" campaign, where we advocate for every girl's right to share her story and transform the world.
The LitWorld community has proudly celebrated the International Day of the Girl for the past 13 years, and this year was no different.
Our global partners commemorated this day by putting together special activities to empower girls in their local communities, and we couldn’t be prouder to stand united in this mission alongside them.
Thanks to your support, we can continue to Stand Up for Girls not just on October 11th, but every single day.
Scroll down to see a recap of how our partners celebrated!
Dear LitWorld Friend,
Greetings from our headquarters in New York City! From where we are, the leaves are beginning to take on the warm hues of autumn, ushering in the new season. It's a wonderful time to renew our energy as we prepare for the last quarter of the year.
As the season turns, we find it fitting to welcome new changes to our team. We’re grateful to every community member who has contributed to the past, present and future of LitWorld, and we look forward to this next stage of growth.
Read on to learn how our LitWorld team is evolving.
Goodnet, Gateway to Doing Good, acts as a curator, showcasing the best organizations, websites, apps, and services in a variety of categories. Goodnet aspires to be a platform where all of them are brought together in one place, in order to raise public awareness and encourage their use worldwide.
It is a tremendous honor to be named one of 7 Inspiring Literacy and Education Non-Profits. Read the full article here.
Last week we said goodbye to an extraordinary group of summer interns. Having them with us in the office and at our Harlem LitCamp has truly enriched and energized our summer. Times of transition are an important time for reflection. This week Amherst College featured the reflections of one of our interns, Amelia. Her insights are thoughtful and moving, and we thank her for generously sharing her story. Read the full article here.
"It’s hard for Moore to pick the single most exciting aspect of her internship. “It's all been so rewarding,” she says. “I’ve loved getting to know the staff. I’ve gotten to go to all of the meetings on Kibera, too.” Moore hopes to continue to combine art and education at Amherst. Last year, she created a mini graphic novel in the community-based learning course, Reading, Writing, and Teaching, and she plans to do more. “This internship has given me a new look at education. I think it will really apply to my future.”
On October 11th, the International Day of the Girl, let us stand together to champion the right of all girls to be Fierce, Fearless and Free.
Our entire civilization is at stake when girls’ lives are fragile because they are prevented from accessing the right to read and write. Sign the Stand Up for Girls Pledge today, and declare your commitment to create positive change for women and girls.
Tell 10 people about the campaign, and ask them to tell 10 more. Add the hashtag #standup4girls to your posts on Facebook and Twitter to spread the movement far and wide.
Be sure to check the Stand Up for Girls links on the right-hand sidebar often, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for up to the minute updates. Learn how you can enter the Stand Up for Girls Photo Contest on the Activities page for a chance to win 2 tickets to LitWorld's Gala 2013.
Follow the Stand Up for Girls Blog to read about community advocates who will spearhead #standup4girls events in their communities.
Join our Event on Facebook and invite your friends to join too! Together let's get the whole world to Stand Up for Girls on 10.11.12.
This is a week of excitment, anticipation, and joy as we launch the Harlem LitCamp at the Broadway Housing community! On Monday morning the girls and boys kicked things off by exercising their imaginations to create new countries, the first in a week of international themed activities.
LitCamps enrich the summer with learning opportunities at a time of year that would otherwise mark a void in the reading and writing lives of low income children. With limited access to resources and safe places to read, children at risk lose precious academic ground. Every child deserves to fall completely in love with reading and writing, and to experience the amazing feeling of falling into another world!
In August we will launch our first Kibera LitCamp. Follow the LitCamp journey this summer on Facebook and Twitter:
Pam is a featured contributor on the Pearson Foundation’s new project, Five Things I’ve Learned. The project aims to share the insights of education leaders whose daily efforts are improving outcomes for students inside and outside the classroom. Each contribution chronicles personal lessons learned from decades of real-world experience, sharing proven practice and wisdom about learning, teaching, and helping others.
Pam’s touching list of personal reflections explains the core values that are at the heart of every LitWorld endeavour. To read her list in its entirety, visit Five Things I’ve Learned.
"The most important voices, the crucial voices, the voices of children themselves, are most often left out when we speak of matters of education and best practice. I have learned that the more I can ask children questions I don't already know the answers to, I learn so much about life, about literature, about the world."
Madison Graboyes, our Lead Programming Coordinator, recently spoke at the TEDxGlobal Learning School Conference. Her talk, titled The Three of Us, presents a compelling argument: we can change the world by listening. Listen here, as Madison explains why the world can't afford to let a single story go untold and unheard.
Pam has a new article up on the Huffington post speaking about the powerful link between literacy and human connection. Read the full article here.
"Lately, I've been thinking a lot about company. The children in our LitWorld programs are often very lonely at the end of the school day. They will linger at the community center rather than have to go home to an empty apartment. The children in Kibera, Kenya, walk long and very treacherous distances to get from school to home, through winding alleys, often in a cold darkness.
I have been thinking about what we can share with children that will make their journeys less lonely.
I believe that literacy is all about this idea of accompaniment. It's about raising our voices, sharing our stories, communicating our ideas and hopes and dreams and learning about other worlds, exploring the imaginations of our fellow authors together. Literacy allows the child walking the lonely path or the woman facing a new story of HIV or the father waiting in the clinic for his IV can hear the power, the deep and stirring power of not being alone."
Stay connected
Make a difference
