Our intervention consists of two elements: the establishment of a small library and the introduction of educational programs, based at the library, that will focus on reading, writing and mathematics. Our library programs

will target all children—those who are attending school and those who are unable to attend school due to socio-economic reasons. One of the tremendous benefits of reading is that it is a great equalizer: research shows that reading for leisure is more important for a child’s educational attainment than their family’s socio-economic status. In Liberia, children read less frequently for leisure than in other countries due to the lack of availability of books. This means that children are losing out on a simple activity that could have a significant and positive impact on their development. We are working to address this gap by making books available to children to read for leisure. The joy that lights up their face as they get to take a book to read, just for fun, is fulfilling in itself, but is not the long-term goal: we want to help them learn to read and enable them with the skills needed to improve their lives. 

Our team is developing programs to address these three main areas of focus commonly referred to as “reading, writing, and arithmetic.” These “afterschool club” sessions will take place at the library once a week for reading, once a week for writing and once a week for math. The sessions will run during term and over the school holidays, with occasional breaks and a short break over the summer. Children will take a reading, writing and mathematics test before joining the club and take a test at 6 months and at 12 months, to measure their progress. To support their reading and writing, children will be encouraged to borrow books from the library, participate in discussions about the books they have read, and asked to write book reports and reviews over the books they read. Additionally, children will be encouraged to attend other library events like story hour, poetry events, music events, creative writing sessions, etc. This will help improve their reading and writing skills in a fun and engaging way, both through the

events themselves and by having to write reports about these events or read any material related to these events.

Similar to the afterschool club, learning clubs will be developed for children who are not able to attend school. As these children are likely to have very low literacy levels, this program will start by assessing each child and will aim to get them to the expected reading, writing and numeracy level for their age. These clubs will be held twice a week; as children’s literacy skills develop, they too will be encouraged to borrow books to develop their reading further. They will also be encouraged to attend events at the library as described for the afterschool club children, and their progress will be measured through relevant testing before, during, and after the intervention.