The LitWorld Team is in Africa!

Pam pictured with Denise Ortiz of Sharing to Learn Organization

The LitWorld team has arrived in Africa, and they have had an amazing journey so far! After spending a few days in Kibera, Kenya, they are now in Rwanda to push forward our crusade to share the gift of reading, writing, and story. Denise Ortiz of Sharing to Learn joins the team on this journey, and has helped the Red Rose School create a new library!

Our dear LitWorld friend Sophia, teacher of grade two, enjoys her role in creating the library.

As you may remember from our past blog post, we packed up a bag full of hats and fun costumes for the children in Kenya. We wanted to inspire them to create stories and explore their wildest imaginations, so we brought a few props to help them get in the spirit!  These photos below show the costumes in action, and as you can see from their smiles, these costumes have brought fun and magic to their community!

Speaking of big imaginations, the men of the LitWorld team sure know how to use theirs! Pictured below are  Bill Krupman, Jim Allyn, and Jeremy Kohomban of the Children's Village reading "Where the Wild Things Are" to a group of ecstatic young readers stirred up with excitement and a healthy dose of ruckus! 

Our Girls LitClubs in Kibera, Kenya are thriving and growing, and we're excited to find that the young women who are a part of the LitClubs have grown huge confidence & friendships, while being taught to read and write!

Needless to say, the team is having a wonderful time, and have left Kibera, Kenya, to journey to Rwanda. More updates to come soon! 

We hope you will come along with us on our journey. Follow our stories in Africa:

FACEBOOK page: http://www.facebook.com/litworld

TWITTER: Follow @pamallyn and @litworldsays

-The LitWorld Team

The Bags are Packed: LitWorld's Off to Africa!

Picture books, chapter books, notebooks, pens, pencils, dress-up clothing... Everything's packed and ready to go to our friends in Kenya and Rwanda this week!

We're Building a Library at the Children's Village at the Polo Grounds Community Center!

We are so thrilled to see the precious smiles on these little boys' faces as they watch their new library unfold before their eyes... Thanks to our Ambassador Denise Ortiz (there she is below!) and the hard work of our wonderful interns, the young learners at the Polo Grounds Community Center will have their very own community library very soon. They will be able to check out an entire catalog of books ready for their excitement and curiosity. Their smiling faces make us so happy!

To learn more about Denise and her organization Sharing to Learn, visit her website and view her work as she shares ideas and resources to promote global education in countries like South Africa.

Save the Date: Pam's Live Facebook Chat with Scholastic Teachers will be on 10/27!

On October 27th, 2011, Pam will be featured for a Live Facebook Chat with Scholastic Teachers at 3PM Eastern Time. Pam will be available to answer YOUR questions LIVE, and will be speaking on topics from her book, "Best Books for Boys".

Join in the discussion by visiting the Scholastic Teachers Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/scholasticteachers

Hope to "see" you there!

Pam Heads to Cali for "Your Child's Writing Life!"

Next Monday Pam will travel to California on a tour for her most recent book, Your Child's Writing Life: How to Inspire Confidence, Creativity, and Skill at Every Age. She will travel to the Kidspace Children's Museum in Los Angeles, visit schools in San Francisco, Sonoma, and San Jose, and present at The Innovative Learning Conference to spread the message of writing as a life-long journey.

Pam's book offers a resource to parents and educators everywhere on nurturing and supporting their child or student's love for writing. She provides five keys to help kids WRITE: Word Power, Ritual, Independence, Time, and Environment, and reminds us that writing is an essential part of self-discovery and critical to success later in life.

Check out Pam's speaking schedule on her website to find out when and where she'll be next: http://pamallyn.com/speaking/

See you there!



Expand the Red Rose Library in Kibera, Kenya: Donate to Hue-Man Bookstore!

Dear Friends,

Over these past three years, we have made trips to the Red Rose School in Kibera, Kenya to help grow strong teachers and literacy leaders of all ages, build strength through LitClubs, and establish a new library for the children and teens. The resilience, optimism and joy radiating from the amazing Red Rose community is overwhelming every time we connect with them virtually, but especially when we see one another face to face on these trips. The children and adults alike soak up the read alouds, and they write in their journals without ever wanting to stop.

In November, Pam will return to Red Rose to visit our LitClub girls and boys and the beloved teachers and staff.  She is traveling with Jeremy Kohomban, the CEO of our dear partner organization in New York, Children's Village, and a small LitWorld delegation, to come together to work, sing, grow, and laugh.

One big goal of this trip is to exponentially expand the library we have started at Red Rose. To achieve this, we are holding a book drive hosted by the Hue-Man Bookstore to gather books for the library, and for our LitClubs in Kibera. You can place an order and contribute to the drive by calling Hue-Man at 212-665-7400 or by visiting the store in person:

Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe
2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd (Between 124th and 125th Streets)
New York, NY 10027

With gratitude and kind wishes,

The LitWorld Team

Our LitCorps Ambassador Ruby Veridiano Joins The Girl Effect and Tara Sophia's Blogging Campaign!

Our LitCorps Ambassador in Manila Philippines, Ruby Veridiano, has joined The Girl Effect and writer, speaker, and educator Tara Sophia Mohr in this month's blogging campaign on behalf of girls worldwide!

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It's more urgent than ever to offer girls new armor to protect the woman she is destined to become. I believe that every girl needs the kind of armor that is made of seven strengths: belonging, curiosity, sisterhood, kindness, confidence, courage, and hope.

These seven strengths are the kind of values that I teach when I work with young girls like Natalie. Through the work I do with the Girls LitClubs project through Global Literacy Organization LitWorld, I am being granted an opportunity to build a protective, lifesaving device for young girls, arming them with a strong sense of worth, determination, and self-love. I am able to give her one of the most valuable gifts any girl can have: a space where she is celebrated and honored for being who she is, and for the incredible potential she holds. This is the spirit of THE GIRL EFFECT, a ripple that will create waves for young women the world over.

To read more, visit Ruby's blog here.

To join the The Girl Effect and Tara Sophia Mohr's blogging campaign, visit here.