2016 Annual Report
Worldreader champions digital reading in underserved communities to create a world where everyone can be a reader.
Here is the progress we made in 2016.
Worldreader champions digital reading in underserved communities to create a world where everyone can be a reader.
Here is the progress we made in 2016.
Pre-ReadingWhat we AccomplishedIn 2016, we enabled thousands of parents in Delhi, India to read regularly to their children.
This holiday season, we raised over $141,132 to bring books to 28,226 families through our #ShareABedtimeStory campaign.
Shivana and Rumana are teenage sisters from Delhi, India who use the Read to Kids app on their mobile phone to read stories to children in their community. Every afternoon, 8-15 children from the neighbourhood are invited to the sisters’ home for their reading sessions.
By reading to the children and getting the parents involved, the sisters are helping the children improve in school.
School ReadingWhat we AccomplishedIn 2016, we launched projects at 87 new schools across Africa.
Two of Worldreader’s largest school-based projects were successfully completed: the Tusome Early Grade Reading project and the Education Sector Support Programme.
Readers: 12,317
School: 20
Country: Nigeria
Readers: 6,072
School: 66
Country: Kenya
“I’ve been teaching English at Magoso Primary for 5 months now. Teaching is something that I’ve always known I wanted to do.
When I joined the school, no one would use the school library. When the e-readers came in, everyone wanted to use them so more children started coming to the library. Now every evening the library in the school is full. That makes me feel like I have done something, however small. I go to bed with a smile on my face.”
Library ReadingWhat we AccomplishedIn 2016, we launched new projects at 62 libraries, impacting library patrons and entire communities.
We partnered with the Kenya National Library Service to launch LEAP 2.0. The project will bring digital reading to all 61 public libraries in Kenya by December 2017.
“My town, Naivasha, has one of the biggest prisons in the country – Naivasha Maximum Prison – which has an education centre with over 1,500 inmates undergoing primary and secondary school education. Last week, we visited the prison with the e-readers and trained over 100 inmates and prison officers. That day, they begged us not to leave so they could read more! I have always wanted to be an instrument of change and I am glad to be serving my community as a librarian.”
Library Reading
What we AccomplishedIn 2016, we continued to expand access to our Open Library for millions of readers.
We launched Anasoma, a research project that seeks to understand how books can empower women and how we can encourage more women to read using their mobile phones.
“I had a proper education until the age of 15. My mother raised me single handedly and when she died, I couldn’t continue with my studies.
Now, I’m 23 and I’m so proud to be in school again. I read much more now that I have books on my mobile phone. With my phone I can read at work and it’s easier than using a book whereby everyone will see you. I believe if I finish secondary, I’ll go to the university.”
CommunityIn 2016, our community came together to reach more readers, with more books than ever before. Our partners, donors, authors and publishers, team and board members all played a fundamental role in making this happen.
Financials
“Reading widens our field of vision and changes not only the way we see the world at large but also how we understand our place in it. I support Worldreader because I love organizations that rethink how we can address age-old problems, in this case the availability of relevant books, using technology in innovative, efficient, scalable—even elegant—ways.”
