LitWorld Board Member Chernor Bah Leads UN Youth Takeover on Malala Day

Today is Malala Yousafzai's 16th birthday. Last October she was shot by the Taliban for speaking out and standing up for every girl's right to an education. Today LitWorld Board Member and Leader of the Youth Advisory Group for the United Nations Education First Initiative, Chernor Bah, lead the Malala Day celebration at the UN. Malala addressed the audience, and rallied the world to mobilize for every girl's right to a quality education.

Our LitWorld interns were part of the audience of more than 600 young leaders at the UN Youth Takeover. After Malala's speech‬, youth from over 60 countries presented members of the UN with The Youth Resolution: The Education Young People Want, an official document conveying young people's demands on education.

LitWorld's work in the LitClubs and Camps worldwide speaks to every point that Malala made in her speech, for these are portable, nimble, democratic solutions that can change the world of education. Our essence, our core, the foundation of our work is exactly what she said: books, pens and the power of the human voice to change the world.

LitWorld Founder Pam Allyn on Bloomberg TV

LitWorld's Founder and Executive Director, Pam Allyn, joined Dominique Young from Scholastic to talk about the importance of summer learning and to offer solutions for keeping kids motivated and passionate about reading all summer long.

"The idea of being a reading role model is really important, as well as creating safe spaces for your child to read and not judging them in terms of what they read." --Pam Allyn

Let's Put the 'Summer' Feeling Back into 'Summer Learning' for Kids

In her latest piece for the Huffington Post, LitWorld's Executive Director, Pam Allyn, explains why we must reinvent summer learning for all children, and how the LitCamp model of social emotional learning is a joyful way to overcome the summer slide.

"Truly joyous learning should and can happen 12 months a year. Yet, we still operate on the idea that there are only two options for children in the summer months. Children are either out of school, which worked in the agrarian times when many children were needed on farms, but is not suited to urban children who now spend most of their summer in cramped and hot apartments. Or, they go to the often dreaded summer school, which is generally a "remedial" time for struggling learners, or additional test prep time for children from our lowest socioeconomic communities.

Let us together advocate for a third option, and that is to use what we most love about that special thrill of summer to inspire the creation of great learning opportunities for all children (regardless of income level) while heeding the reality of summer learning loss. The stakes are high, and the "summer slide" is steep."

Read the full piece here

Litworld In Kibera: Reunions and Expansion

LitWorld's Executive Director & Chief Storyteller, Pam Allyn, and Fire Starter, Brooke Stone, are visiting our Innovation Hub in Kenya. This trip will be full of reunions with LitClub girls and boys and their wonderful leaders; teacher trainings; sing-a-longs; community read alouds; and plans to expand and grow the work on the ground. Follow us on Facebook for glorious photos and stories from the field. 

Pam Allyn to Speak at African First Ladies Summit, “Investing in Women: Strengthening Africa"

LitWorld's Executive Director, Pam Allyn, has received the great honor of being invited to speak at the African First Ladies Summit in Tanzania on July 2nd. She will share LitWorld Innovations with many high profile attendees including African First Ladies, government officials, private organizations, NGOs and academics. Pam will participate in the education panel, "Critical Interventions in Education: Literacy, Access to Education, and Teacher Training," as a renowned literacy expert.

The summit was featured in the New York Times this week as Former President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama announced their intentions to travel to Tanzania for this important event.

Show your support for effective investments in women in order to achieve greater stability. Download the #investinwomen graphic from the Bush Center to use as your profile picture, twitter avatar or simply post as a picture to make sure your voice heard.

A New LitClub Launches at the LitWorld the Philippines!

Jump for joy, a new Girls LitClub has launched at the LitWorld Innovation Hub in Bulacan, the Philippines! We are thrilled that a new group of girls has a safe community to learn to read and write through the sharing of stories and a LitClub leader who cares about them, listens to them and will accompany them on their journey through childhood. Boys LitClubs will be launching next, stay tuned!

An Inspiration Celebration with The Children's Village Boys LitClub

This week we visited the Dobbs Ferry, NY campus of our longtime partner, The Children's Village, for an end of year Poetry Slam Inspiration Celebration with the Boys LitClub. The LitClub boys decided to serve their guests Skittles and red velvet cupcakes. Each boy presented his favorite poem from his inspiration journal. We heard a poem about Skittles, a poem about a boy losing his mother, a rap (with advanced beats) called "Testify," and the poem below called, "Colors," written by LitClub member Justin.

We are sending deep and profound gratitude to the LitClub boys, and to Erica Mason, who has done a phenomenal job leading the Boys LitClub this year. Each boy has shown tremendous personal growth, and growth as a reader, writer, listener and speaker. It was an honor to take part in this warm Inspiration Celebration!

Colors

When I first came to Children's Village
I had the Golds.
Not the golds that make you smile.
Golds the sorts that make you want to scream.
Golds.

Then when I got used to it for a long time
I had the blues blues.
Not the blues that
makes you want to swim.
The blues that makes you want to EXPLODE!

I don't have the blue.
I have the golds.
Golds.
The golds that make you want to jump out of a plane golds.

Now I have the pinks.
The real pinks.
The pinks that makes you want to thank Children's Village.