Ethiopia Reads

Please join Children's Reading Summit Team USA to fund the second Children's Reading Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which is scheduled  for March 12-13, 2020.  The funds will go towards expenses related to the summit, in securing the venue and hiring translators to engage in a united conversation.   We believe this conversation is vital for the advancement of literacy initiatives across the country.    
Last year, we had the First Children's Reading Summit which produced a seismic shift in highlighting collaboration amongst educators, librarians, government officials, academics, publishers, authors, illustrators, and other non-profits, in addressing literacy issues.  As a result, the Ministry of Education has endorsed our Second Children's Reading Summit to examine supporting their existing curriculum, addressing professional development needs, the lack of quality books, and the development of efficient pipeline to get books into the hands of children.  A similar concept would be..."farm to table" ...only "pages to lap".  Every child deserves a quality book to snuggle and read!  
                
                              Introduction to Some of the Team members
My name is Carol Settgast. I’ve spent the last ten years volunteering with Ethiopia Reads as a trainer and curriculum writer. In 2010, I was introduced to Ethiopia Reads through a Kansas State University sponsored Fulbright Hays Study Abroad Program. My career as an elementary school library media specialist has been a perfect fit in helping strengthen literacy and library skills in Ethiopia. I partner with fellow volunteers, such as Dr. Laurie Curtis, from around the U.S. and abroad to work alongside talented Ethiopia Reads staff developing training modules for educators and librarians.

Dr. Laurie Curtis is the Chair of the Ethiopia Reads Book Centered Learning (BCL) Committee.  Her background includes teaching elementary school for fifteen years before serving fourteen years as a professor at Kansas State University. She co-lead the 2010 Fulbright Hays Group to Ethiopia and has returned many times to provide professional training for Ethiopia Reads. Under her leadership, the BCL Committee and Ethiopia Reads staff were able to gather qualitative and quantitative data concerning the needs of Ethiopian School Libraries/Librarians This was the foundation for creating the twenty-three Book Centered Learning (BCL) training modules and manual to address library organization, engaging students in reading, and professional development and advocacy.  (The video depicts Dr. Laurie Curtis in 2015, when our BCL professional development and advocacy work started.)

However, our favorite days during training sessions, are the days we get to visit schools and talk with children about reading, about their favorite books, about what they are learning. When we visit school libraries, frequently a child will volunteer to read to us. Oh, my heart! That is the best!


Points of Pride for Ethiopia Reads 

· Established more than 70 libraries located in every region of the country

· Shipped well over a quarter of a million books

· Serves 130,00 children a year through services

· Provides horse powered literacy to rural areas

· Printed thousands of local language books

· Recognized as an official Honoree from the Library of Congress in 2016

· 2019 graduated 70 librarians and educators from our 3 year Book Centered Learning Course

· 2019 trained 100 people in guided reading techniques to share with their school staffs

· 2019 Held the First Children’s Reading Summit with over 200 participants

· 2019 Gebeta Library hosted the first Reading and Art Summer Camp for 50 children and trained 24 high school/college students to be camp counselors

· 2019 Reached over 1000 children and families through reading festivals, after school programs, and mobile donkey libraries

· 2019 Received the prestigious Hohe Prize for Contributing to Children’s Literacy by distributing books throughout the country

· 2020 Children’s Reading Summit and showcase for the International Book Collection which will be featured at the National Library
Love children…Love books…let’s bring them together!

Help Ethiopia Reads continue to advocate for literacy! We are the most complete provider of combined library and literacy training in the country of Ethiopia.

More information about Ethiopia Reads: Ethiopia Reads  collaborates with Ethiopian communities to plant libraries, boost literacy, put books into the hands of thousands of children, and provide families with the tools to improve their lives.

We're a group of five students from Purdue University, and we have a confession...

We sometimes forget how lucky we are to be getting an education, let alone at one of the best universities in the world. And we're not proud of ourselves for that because the truth is that we are extremely fortunate to be in the position that we are.

In Ethiopia, where one of our group members has been involved with this issue:

Only 45% of kids can read and write

7.5% of adults have any post-secondary education.

Only 30% of female girls are enrolled in primary school.

Over 2 million kids are not in school.

These numbers are alarming. And they've opened our eyes. We want to do whatever we can to give the opportunity of an education to kids who don't have the same means as we do.

And we need YOUR help to make that happen.

We've partnered with an organization called Ethiopia Reads that has been a leading organization in educating the youth in Ethiopia. Since 1998, they've planted over 70 libraries and have sent over 1 million kids to school.

Ethiopia Reads has an annual student sponsorship, and we found this to be the best way for us to give to kids who are less fortunate exactly what we are getting here at Purdue.

Annual sponsorship for 1 student = $252
Sending 1 student to school for 4 years = $1,008
Sending 5 kids to school for 5 years = $5,040

(GoFundMe additional costs mean that we have to to raise $5,480 to reach the amount!)

From Ethiopia Reads:
"The education of one child can free an entire family from a generation of hopelessness. It can be the difference between a lifetime of poverty and a chance at a real future.If the average family in Ethiopia numbers 7, that can translate into opportunity for 1,400 children and family members per year!"