Mother Tongue Reading Camps Amazing Achievements Celebrated on the 50th anniversary of International Literacy Day

Thursday, September 7, 2017

(Addis Ababa, September 8, 2017):  The 51th anniversary of International Literacy Day will be celebrated globally on September 8th with the theme “‘Literacy in a digital world”. World Vision Ethiopia (WVE) will be celebrating the day by reflecting on the achievements so far and looking forward to doing more in the future. WVE's Literacy model is innovative, scientific and evidence-based.  It is designed to respond to an alarming global trend: children finishing primary school unable to effectively read in their mother tongue.

The aim of Literacy Boost is to ensure that children in the early grades of primary school reach an acceptable level of reading proficiency by identify gaps in the five core reading skills, training teachers with an emphasis on core reading skills, and mobilizing communities for reading action.

Started in 2012, WVE has been implementing the program in 57 child sponsorship funded Area Programs and proved to bring extraordinary results in children's learning outcomes. WVE has able to mobilize the community and the government to establish 4,203 reading camps across Oromia, Amhara, Tigray, SNNP, Benishangul Gumuz and Addis Ababa regions.  Nearly 1.5 million children are benefiting from these reading camps and over 15,000 youths are volunteering to serve reading camp children and parents. 

Currently, Literacy Boost is implemented in nearly 1,828 schools across the six regions in Ethiopia and a total of nearly 75,000 teachers have completed the nine teacher training sessions. In addition, nearly 500 book titles in seven languages groups (Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Tigrigna, Sidamafoo, English, Agewgna, Kefficho, Kembatisa) were developed in partnership with book publishers and nearly 1.4 million book copies distributed to reading camps.

“World Vision is proud to share these achievements” says WVE National Director Edward Brown. “These results would not have been possible without our strong partnership with the government, community and other stakeholders who have played key role.   Through amazing volunteers and children so eager to learn, we hope to do more with additional funding that will enable expansion to unreached areas of this great, vast country,” he added.

 For more information, please contact meron_aberra@wvi.org, +251-966270109.

World Vision began its first intervention in Ethiopia in 1971 with cross border emergency relief operations and opened the Ethiopia office in 1975. During the 1984/85 drought, WVE participated in a massive relief operation that saved the lives of millions of people. After an intensive relief and rehabilitation program, the organization developed a new integrated development approach the objective of which was to ensure empowerment and transformational change. This approach led to the establishment of Area Programs (APs) in the 1990s that is still being implemented and continuously strengthened today in many parts of the country.  Registered and licensed by Ethiopia’s Charities and Societies Agency, WVE operates in more than 80 Districts of the country in Amhara, Oromiya, Tigray, SNNPR, Benshangul Gumuz, and Addis Ababa City Administration.