Partner Spotlight: Sona Traore at LEAD Africa, Liberia!

LitWorld's partners and the LitKids we serve together are the heart of what we do, and we are thrilled to share with you some of their stories and insights from this year with our Partner Spotlights!

This week, we’re welcoming Sona Traore: our Partnership Coordinator at LEAD Africa Monrovia Football Academy in Liberia. Stay tuned to hear more from our community-based partners about how they've been working to stay safe, strong, and hopeful this year—all thanks to the support of people like you.

Q: Tell us about this year and how the pandemic has affected your community?

Sona: We were all affected by the pandemic. When coronavirus hit in March, we kept our students with us on campus. LitClub mentors followed the weekly Virtual LitClub curriculum, which I found helpful because these were unusual times that forced us to be innovative. COVID-19 affected our communities, but we strove through it all and made sure our students were actively participating despite all that was happening.

Sona Traore

Q: How have you been running LitWorld's programs this year?

Sona: Our students love LitClubs! The weekly activities gave them something to look forward to during the virus. I incorporated more stories, music, dance, and creative writing for older students, arts for younger students, and gave daily updates on virus prevention.

It was challenging, but if there's one thing this virus has taught us, it's that we have to come together as a community to fight anything that will break us.

Q:  Which of the 7 Strengths feels closest to your community?

Sona: Our community consists of all 7 Strengths, but we would choose Hope, Courage, and Kindness—especially in the time of the pandemic. Hope kept us going even though we had no idea when all this would be over. We had the courage to go through each day with optimism.

We extended our hands to community members and became more united to overcome the fear of the pandemic.

Q: What does "serious joy" mean to you?

Sona: As a teacher and mentor, serious joy is waking up everyday knowing that my students are happy. It's seeing them strive everyday to make their stories different. It's the enthusiasm my students have for learning, and making sure that I don't lose my motivation to nurture that enthusiasm. It's working towards building a better future for the young people of my country. Serious joy is a LitClub class where we learn, laugh, make mistakes, and unite using our stories.

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 Learn more about LEAD Africa and their work supporting kids in Liberia and Morocco, and support LitWorld's critical work in communities around the globe by donating today!

Traveling the World with the #GlobalHeartMap Project!

This past spring, we reached out to you for the launch our aspirational #GlobalHeartMap project. At a time when many of us felt more distanced than ever due to the pandemic, we asked you to help bring our global community together by sharing what's in your heart with others around the world.

Now, after receiving hundreds of submissions from dozens of different countries, we are thrilled to share this truly global collection of #HeartMaps!

From New York to the Netherlands, Romania to Rwanda, and Canada to Colombia, thank you to everyone who has participated in our #GlobalHeartMap project.

We are so inspired by this display of unity, resilience, and hope. 

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Want to share your Heart Map with the world? It's never too late to join in the fun! Just post a picture of your #HeartMap on social and tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Reaching Even More Kids at Home with Zigazoo!

With the new school year beginning amidst the ongoing pandemic, students around the world are facing greater obstacles than ever when it comes to continuing a meaningful, positive education.

That is why in addition to our Virtual LitClubs, we are proud to announce our new channel on Zigazoo: a revolutionary remote-learning app for kids!

One of the LitWorld projects on Zigazoo.

Founded earlier this year, Zigazoo is a free app that offers kids engaging and educational prompts that they can respond to with their own short videos.

With over 2.5 million views as of this week, LitWorld is working with Zigazoo to reach millions children around the world.

Together with the Pheonix Zoo, Glazer's Children Museum, and more, LitWorld will be joining Zigazoo to provide joyful learning to kids everywhere.

Check out our channel now by downloading the app and searching for LitWorld, or learn more about Zigazoo by visiting their site or reading about their recent launch today.

How We’re Keeping Kids Learning through Covid-19 this Summer

As soon as the pandemic took hold, we knew summer learning would need to be extra innovative and responsive this year.

We moved quickly with our publisher Scholastic, creating a version of our renowned summer program to bring the strengths of LitCamp right into children’s homes in partnership with school districts across the U.S.

LitCamp at Home sent kids and families book packs, workbooks, and videos in both English and Spanish, and provided educators with flexible resources as they worked together to create safe, inspiring virtual learning spaces for their students.

Click here to watch the LitCamp at Home Read-Aloud Series featuring LitWorld founder Pam Allyn!

All summer long, LitCamp at Home has been providing schools and families alike from New York to Georgia to Texas with the resources they need to support the kids in their communities. Learn about the impact of LitCamp at Home from school leaders in Marietta, Georgia, and El Paso, Texas, in these full interviews with the Scholastic team.

We have also continued to innovate our curriculum delivered to our community-based partners around the world, which we have now made available for all!

These virtual programs are open to anyone and everyone in need of resources that are educational, socially and emotionally supportive, and—above all else—rooted in joy.

Watch the complete first edition of Virtual LitClub here, and check out our follow-up series, Virtual LitClub: LitCamp Edition!

This series is our next step in bringing safe, joyful learning to children around the world and keeping families and communities everywhere connected, engaged, and inspired—no matter the circumstances.

With new activities, prompts, and projects all centered around LitWorld’s 7 Strengths, Virtual LitClub is designed to reach kids at home, on the go, on their own, or together with others. Visit our site or social channels to see the collection, and sign up for our newsletter to have more Virtual LitClub updates delivered straight to your inbox!

Kids around the world having fun with Virtual LitClubs!

We Did It - Thanks to You!

Thank you for helping LitWorld reach our fundraising goals this spring!

From providing food and basic supplies to in-need families in Pakistan to assisting LitMoms in Uganda as they make face masks for their neighborhoods, your support of LitWorld has impacted communities around the world.

To share some of the changes that you helped us make, we are thrilled to introduce Priscilla Mwambo, one of our Partnership Coordinators at Go Ye Therefore Zambia.

“At Go Ye Therefore Zambia, we are so grateful to LitWorld for the work they are doing. It really has been a wonderful experience. We didn’t know what to do when the pandemic began, but you did not give up on us.

We are so inspired and grateful to have you as our partners, standing with us in this time of difficulty. You helped us come up with something we could do during this time.The Virtual LitClubs have made us so happy and helped us be hopeful. It has improved our relationship with our local community and strengthened our partnership here with the Ministry of Education. It kept us going. It keeps us looking forward.

It’s a challenging time for everyone, but LitWorld and its supporters did not give up. You kept thinking of how to help us in Zambia, and how you could help support your partners everywhere. We are so grateful that despite the difficult times in America, you are able to stand with us.”

- Priscilla Mwambo
Partnership Coordinator, Go Ye Therefore, Zambia

When schools closed in Zambia, your support helped keep our 120 LitKids at Go Ye Therefore engaged and connected through Virtual LitClubs. These programs were celebrated with a “Virtual LitClub Opening Ceremony” and covered on television - the first event of its kind in the country.

Through our partnership, Go Ye Therefore was able to purchase phones for LitKids who had been isolated at home due to COVID-19. These phones not only provided a lifeline to connect with the outside world, but allowed LitKids to stay in touch with mentors for regular read-alouds, check-ins, and activities while schools remain closed.

On behalf of the LitWorld community in Zambia and all around the world, thank you for helping to ensure that children everywhere can stay safe and supported, and will always have a place to share their stories.

Standing Up Against Racism In Our Education Systems

Dear LitWorld Friends,

2020 has been a year of huge turmoil. On top of the continuing global pandemic, these last few weeks have brought an entirely different crisis into focus, one that has been brewing in our country for centuries: the inequities and injustices in our systems that disproportionately affect Black people. These inequities can be found in our courts, our jails, our businesses, and especially our schools.

Here are the facts. Black students experience lower teacher expectations and disproportionate disciplinary action. 54% of Black fourth grade boys in the U.S. cannot read at even a “basic” academic level — more than twice the rate of their white peers — and are four times more likely to drop out of school. Schools with more Black students have fewer books; more regressive curricula; and fewer opportunities for students to share their perspectives or engage in complex analysis and critical thinking.

This is why, now more than ever, I am proud to be a member of LitWorld’s board. LitWorld advocates that access to literacy and supportive learning environments that see kids’ true potential is a shared responsibility, and a means to advance all human rights. Literacy and storytelling have the power to transform lives, and by giving marginalized children a joyful space to learn and grow, LitWorld is creating change and equity on a global level.

Join me in supporting LitWorld today. Together, we can fix this broken system and bring kids everywhere equity, opportunity, and hope.

Our children deserve a world where they can share their stories freely, regardless of country or color. You can help create that world.

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In solidarity,

Ernest Morrell, Ph.D.
Director, Notre Dame Center for Literacy Education
Director, NCTE James R. Squire Office for Policy Research
Board Member, LitWorld

Read Ernest’s article in the Chicago Tribune now.

Black Lives Matter

LitWorld believes in the power of listening well, especially to children and young people who are traditionally marginalized and kept quiet. We believe in the power of amplifying the stories of their lives, their hopes, their fears, their needs, their goals, and greatest dreams. These stories and the young people who share them, full of strength and potential, have the power to build a world of equity and freedom.

Listening and amplifying are not enough. While LitWorld has always put the voices of those we serve first and foremost, this is a time when we must all stand by what is right and use our voices to call out the racism, anti-Blackness, and White supremacy embedded in our global society. To affirm that Black Lives Matter.

We believe that access to literacy and the power of stories lays the foundation for equity and human rights. We call upon you to consider alongside us how we can all take action more fully for Black children every day. This is the only way that we can support all children and ensure every voice is heard. Young people cannot change the world with their stories if they cannot breathe.

Education will never look the same after this pivotal moment in history, and in the midst of this devastation and heartbreak, that gives us some hope.

Our only path forward is to continue standing up for Black lives and amplifying Black stories because as a society, we need to do so, so much better. Our future depends on it.