By Yaya Yuan | Programming Development Coordinator
The generous donations of Global Giving members continue to support the growth and expansion of LitWorld programming. This summer, members of the LitWorld team travelled to our hub site in Kibera, Kenya to collect data, conduct LitClub Facilitator training sessions, and to open the first LitWorld Club Hub, a new space to hold programming and foster community togetherness.
We had a great time during the facilitator training sessions, practicing community building games, learning about new technology, and above all, lots of laughing and storytelling. The teachers were thoroughly engaged and asking questions throughout the whole session; they did not want to stop.
We also did some brainstorming with the Girls and Boys LitClubs, asking them to write and share ideas of things they would like to have in the new LitWorld Club Hub. We were not surprised by the wonderful suggestions they put forward – from cubbies for their stuff, to singing and dancing groups, to interesting storybooks and computers.
We took their brilliant ideas and got to work immediately, painting the walls, organizing a community library and bringing the space to life, making it a warm and inviting place for all to be touched by the power of shared literacy experiences.
This summer our team also visited the Philippines, to strengthen our partnerships, and to spread our LitClubs. We visited our wonderful partner organization Project Pearls in Ulingan. This is a slum area in Manila very similar in nature to Kibera, in Nairobi. The people are living there without sanitation, water or electricity.
Project Pearls started with a feeding program for the children on Saturdays and has turned into something much, much more. They have incorporated the LitClub model into the fabric of their work. We were very fortunate to meet the beautiful girls of the Ulingan LitClub and to see their joy and excitement for reading and writing, their gratitude to all of you for making this possible, and the rays of hope that the Club provides to them. It was an honor to be there and to see that.
One of the amazing things that we learned is the value placed on human dignity when there is charity or any kind of work involving people living in poverty. For example, rather than bring food in from the outside, Project PEARLS ensures community members are actively involved in running the programs, and an integral part of the work. To us, that is the theme of the work here; the way dignity really matters and how to keep that front and center in the work we do.
Thanks to your generosity we are able to provide literacy sanctuaries of hope, strength and joy through the transformational power of story to boys and girls all over the world. They are given the opportunity they deserve to fall completely in love with reading and writing, and the possibilities for their future are ever expanding.
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