Welcome
Literacy plays a vital role in education and development and studies show that both literacy and education yield major dividends in development. However access to basic resources is necessary in order for both literacy and education to be successful.
Unfortunately Zambian schools do not have ready access to educational resources making it extremely difficulty for education to be a catalyst for change.
It is estimated that more than 70 percent of schools do not have adequate access to reading materials, including textbooks while an estimated 35 percent of Zambia's school going children do not attend school due to the costs associated with buying books.
ProjectEDUCATE's OperationREAD is designed to help improve schools' access to books and encourage students to read outside of the school curriculum as a way of helping to broaden students horizons.
We are pleased to announce the arrival of of our first shipment of books in Zambia. The forty-foot container was sourced and shipped through our educational partners at Books for Africa and USAID. Books for Africa is the largest shipper of books to the African continent and we pleased and proud to have them as a partner.
The 35,000 books have been donated to schools in Zambia's Western and Copperbelt provinces. The books went to a total of twelve schools with eleven thousand students and covered a wide range of subject areas ranging from first grade through college. The container will help in the implementation of ProjectEDUCATE's OperationREAD.
We are most excited about this recent achievement and would like to thank the following people for their generous support.
- Rev Harold Lewis
- Dr Schuyler and Mrs. Janet Foerster
- Mrs. Janet Miles
- Mrs Cecile Springer
- Mr Greg Frost-Arnold and Mrs. Karen Frost Arnold
- Mr and Jeffrey Simmons and Mrs Carla Simmons
- The Pittsburgh Links
A special and profound thank to Mrs. Claudette Lewis for her unparalleled support and dedication to ensuring the project's success.
Following the success of this initial effort, we are looking to acquire additional community partners and encourage schools interested in a partnership to contact us and explore the possibilities.
We would also like to take this opportunity to encourage our donors and supporters to further explore ways in which you can help support this and or any of our initiatives.
Thank you and we look forward to working with you as we continue to support students, empower educators and engage communities.