Spread the Words’ Work

Start

Start a library through the African Library Project

-Do a book drive

-Go to used book sales

-Ask libraries, schools, and book stores to donate to your cause

And then let Tati know if you need help:

-Shipping your books

-Raising money

Connect

Here are just a few ways to connect with the libraries you started:

- Keep Sending Books.  Send the hardback version of your favorite book when you were a kid (or see other kids’ suggestions here).  Hardback science books and reference books are great choices too. 

- Send letters too. Write about you - what your school is like/what you like to do/anything and ask them to write back and tell you how they are enjoying your books.  (To make it easy, Tati has a stack of envelopes with just enough postage on them to get 10 letters from Africa to you in the United States.  Have an adult send her your address and the country your letter is going to and she’ll send you a stamped return envelope to include with your letter.)

- Visit when you are in the neighborhood!  It’s far away, I know.  But if you ever are in Africa go visit your library and meet the teachers and children reading your books.  Help teach English while you are there. I know from experience that your visit will change lives – theirs and yours.

Remember to keep your library’s address in a safe place so you can keep in touch!

Support

Start A Global Literacy Club.  Get your friends together and start a global literacy club that runs book drives and fundraises for shipping.  Once your books have arrived, become pen pals with students visiting the libraries you started. 

Create a Reading Challenge.  Encourage reading with a reading challenge.  Ask each student to set a reading goal and send prizes to all who reach it.  It can be a simple certificate or, better yet, a book for them to own of their own.  Either way they’ll read more and feel great about it.

Publish Their Book!  Have students write their own stories and draw their own illustrations (see Connect on this page for a postage-free way to get it to you).  Turn them into a hardcopy book for their classroom or library.  It’s simple, just make sure all their work is on the same size paper that’ll fit in the book you’re having bound, bind it, and send it back.  How cool is that?! 

Speak Out.  There’s lots the world can learn about illiteracy.  It’s important for anyone who can help solve this problem to work for those who can’t.  We’ll all benefit if you do.  Talk about it in your classrooms, at assemblies, in your book clubs and at youth gatherings.   That’s a great time to ask for book donations too! 

             Send Digital Teaching Materials. Learn how here.

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