Save the Children Voices from the Field

Spread the Love of Reading to Your Preschooler with These Books

Ajla Grozdanic, Manager, Marketing and Communications, U.S. Programs

Washington, D.C.

January 27, 2012

This is the second post in our "Love to Read" series which highlights fun and educational books that will help your child develop into an avid reader! Be sure to check back later in the week for recommendations for older children.

Did you know that less than half of children under 5 are read to every day by a family member? Ensure your little ones get their daily dose of reading with these 10 expert-recommended book selections:  

• Best Friends by Charlotte Labaronne
• How Do Dinosaurs Play with Their Friends by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
• Mine! Mine! Mine! By Shelly Becker
• Sharing How Kindness Grows by Fran Shaw
• Sunshine & Storm by Elisabeth Jones
• I Accept You as You Are! by David Parker
• The Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
• I’m in Charge of Me!, by David Parker
• I Love it When You Smile by Sam McBratney
• I Love You All Day Long by Francesca Rusackas

Looking for other ways to spread the love? Get your limited-edition Valentine's Day cards and support Save the Children’s education programs in the United States. Learn more about our Love to Read, Read to Live campaign. 

“It works!” says the NY Times

January 27, 2012

Westport, CT

In Nepal, 8-year-old Himal now has a favorite book – discovered through Save the Children’s Literacy Boost. In Malawi, Literacy Boost helped 11-year-old Beatrice learn to read, although she is blind in one eye. Amazingly, she now volunteers as a reading mentor for fellow students.

A model learning initiative, Literacy Boost was featured in the New York Times on January 19, 2012, in an article entitled “A Boost for the World’s Poorest Schools.” 

With your invaluable support, this innovative program is making it easier for children in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean to master the reading skills so necessary for a successful future. In 2011, Literacy Boost reached nearly 66,000 children. This year, we hope to reach 59,000 more.

Designed for young readers in grades 1-4, Literacy Boost lets everyone – from parents to teachers, to community volunteers to older children like Beatrice – get involved. Learning materials are often made locally and are in sync with the local language and curriculum. Books are loaned out to encourage reading at home. Songs, games, reading camps and reading buddies make sure learning is not only educational, but fun!

Does it work? Absolutely! Assessments, a regular part of the program, show that students who participate in Literacy Boost make significantly more progress in reading than students who don’t participate. Even better, Literacy Boost participants attend school more often – and they do better in math as well as in reading!

We hope you’re as proud of these results – and of your part in making them possible – as we are! To read the New York Times article, click here.

Spread the Love of Reading to Your Toddler with These Books

Ajla Grozdanic, Manager, Marketing and Communications, U.S. Programs

Washington, D.C.

January 25, 2012

This is the first post in our "Love to Read" series which highlights fun and educational books that will help your child develop into an avid reader! Be sure to check back later in the week for recommendations for older children.

Reading to your children can start soon after birth. The simple act of reading aloud as you flip through picture books with your infant or toddler is a shared activity that not only helps create a closer bond between you, but also boosts your child’s language and cognitive development. Get your newborn bundles of joy off to an early reading start with these 10 picks:

• Mine! A Backpack Baby Story by Miriam Cohen
• Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback
• I Went Walking by Sue Williams 
• Flower Garden by Eve Bunting
• Sail Away by Donald Crews
• Nuts to You! By Lois Ehlert 
• Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
• All Fall Down by Helen Oxenbury
• Pots and Pans by Anne Rockwell
• Jungle Walk by Nancy Tafuri

Looking for other ways to spread the love? Get your limited-edition Valentine's Day cards and support Save the Children’s education programs in the United States. Learn more about our Love to Read, Read to Live campaign. 

In a Haitian Tent Camp, Grit and Hope

Lane Hartill, Director of Media and Communications

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

January 11, 2012

What’s it like to be teenager in Haiti?

Well that depends.

If your parents have the means, you will go to a private school in Petionville, a hilltop neighborhood of Port-au-Prince where some of the best restaurants are found. Someone will drive you to school. Your uniform will be washed with laundry detergent regularly and, each day before school, it will be ironed.

Sounds pretty normal, right?

It’s not. In Haiti, this life is a pipe dream for most kids.

***

Go to the Gaston Margron camp in the Carrefour neighborhood, and you’ll find a family of teens, managing on their own. Marclene, a shy 20 year old, acts as the mom for her three younger siblings. She shares a hot tent with her sister, Darline, who recently had a baby, Marckensley (she named him after the Gospel of Mark in the Bible). The two sleep on a twin mattress with Marckensley between them. Their younger sister, Mouna, sleeps on a mat on the floor. Their clothes are slung over a cord that runs across the tent.

When I visited them, they had no money for laundry detergent, so they were rinsing their clothes in a big tub of water. It’s the same tub they bathe in; they don’t have money for body soap either, so they just rinse the sweat off.

Their biggest concerns are elemental: food, water, and sleeping. They rely on their brother, Ted, who sells plastic bags of water in the market. But they cost only a few pennies a piece. Ted has to sell hundreds to make a few dollars. He says he makes about a dollar a day. This is the money the five of them live on.

Life is tough. But Marclene tries not to let it get her down. She’s prays a lot—her Creole Bible is worn at the edges—and she tries to stay positive. Like young people everywhere, she scraped together enough money for a cell phone, but finding the money to pay to charge it is hard.

***

A lot of kids live like Marclene and her family. It’s not a pleasant life, but they’re getting by. One thing they don’t have to worry about: health care. Save the Children provides if for free in their tent camp. Our clinics in Haiti average 4,500 visits a month. And it’s all free.

A lot of people shake their head when they think of Haiti. But they shouldn’t. Haiti is still in better shape than a lot of countries. Think about it: It is next door to the U.S.; more than 1 million Haitian live in the U.S. and send remittances back to Haiti; foreign government pledged billions to Haiti and the first signs of private investment are slowly starting – a Marriott Hotel is slated to be built outside Port-au-Prince.

While the news out of Haiti is often grim, don’t give up on the country. 

Haitians certainly haven’t. And that should be a lesson to us all.

____________________

Learn more about our ongoing work to ensure a better future for Haitian children.

 

Witnessing Change in Action

Andrea Williamson-Hughes; Deputy Director, Office of the President

Gare Arera, Ethiopia

December 20, 2011

The school constructed by Save the Children in Gare Arera came into view as we rounded the last turn of a bone-rattling, 45-minute drive over a rocky road that was more path than anything. That anyone lives so far from the paved road, let alone goes to school there, seems nothing short of amazing. Yet the sight of children peering out the school’s windows assured us that something was happening.

Save the Children has worked in the West Showa District of Ethiopia, where Gare Arera is located, since 2009. Today, several hundred children attend the school constructed with sponsorship dollars. Classes ranging from Preschool (Early Childhood Development programs) to Grade 4 are taught in two shifts to allow maximum use of classroom space. Working in close collaboration with the Ethiopian Government, Save the Children helps with curriculum enhancement and training, to help instructors convey important health, sanitation and nutrition practices and to impart basic, but effective, teaching methods.

I couldn’t help but smile during our classroom visits. Eager youngsters anxious to demonstrate their knowledge filled rooms adorned with colorful learning materials, many of them locally made. Questions about their lessons revealed their grasp of the health, sanitation and education messages that Save the Children-trained teachers impart.

Nearby latrines and clean-water sources – constructed by the community under the guidance of Save the Children – are further indication of the positive changes brought to Gare Arera by sponsors’ contributions. A school garden on the premises that puts my own vegetable patch to shame provides a means of income generation through the sale of produce for the school, as well as nutritious food for children to take home and seeds for home-garden sowing.

The comments of school PTA members, most of them parents themselves, further demonstrated that Save the Children greatly impacts the community. “Thanks to Save the Children, our children are learning important lessons – lessons they bring home to us about healthy living,” said one father. Parents in Gare Arera now value their children’s education to the extent that the PTA plans to enhance educational opportunities by raising funds for additional classrooms to house upper grades. Currently, children who want to go to school beyond fourth grade must walk a long distance and ford a river that becomes dangerous in the rainy season. This deters many children, especially girls, from going on to upper grades.

It was recess time as we prepared to depart and classrooms emptied into the open playfield. Rather than caring for younger siblings or working in the fields, these bubbly children were spending their day as children deserve – with exposure to knowledge and practices that will help them live healthier, more fulfilling lives.

As our vehicle began winding its way back down the bumpy road toward the nearby town of Ambo, I looked back at the many small hands waving us off. How often does one have the opportunity to see real change taking place? It’s a rare occurrence but because of caring sponsors that want to make a difference for children in Ethiopia, I knew I had just witnessed change in action.

Interested in joining our community of sponsors? Click here to find out more