Worldreader celebrates literacy gains at Kwaebibrim reading festival

Worldreader, the global nonprofit organization that helps the world read, will host a reading festival on October 3 at Kwaebibriem. The festival will celebrate and highlight Worldreader’s Ghana District Scale Program in Kwaebibirem District as well as mobilize parents, community members and invited guests to actively participate in reading initiatives.

The festival will feature a sensitization float in Kade, book readings, reading games, poetry recitals, and a cultural display by school children and teachers in the Kwaebibriem District. Children, parents, and guests will have the opportunity to participate in reading activities and interact with books at various booths.


Seven-hundred guests are expected to attend including these dignitaries:

- Catherine Appiah- Pinkrah, Director of Pre-Tertiary Education

- Officials from the Ministry of Education

- Her Excellency Mrs. Matilda Amissah Arthur, Former Second Lady of
Ghana and Worldreader Board Chair

- Okyeame Kwame, musician, brand influencer and Worldreader board
member

- Rebecca Chandler-Leege, Worldreader Chief Impact Officer



Mr Samuel O. Ntow, Kwaebibirem Municipal Education Director, had this to
say about the event,

"We are very excited to celebrate reading and the tremendous progress of the Ghana District Project. The project is helping increase the literacy level of our students and building the skills of our teachers to integrate technology into the classroom. The success of this program illustrates the power of digital reading in preparing students with 21st century skills and to be life-long learners."



About Worldreader’s Work in Ghana

In 2010, Worldreader started its first e-reading program in a small classroom in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Today, the Ghana District Scale program seeks to provide digital reading to all 90 public primary schools within the Kwaeibibirem District (Worldreader is currently working in 54).

This model illustrates that digital reading in schools can be scaled nationwide by creating systems-level change starting at the district level.

Putting hundreds of books in the hands of students with a single e-reader, digital reading has the power to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) by supporting improvements in school readiness, early grade reading outcomes, critical thinking, 21st century skills development, social-emotional learning, gender equality, and workforce
readiness.

Students in Worldreader Ghana’s e-reader programs improved 94% in
mother-tongue oral reading fluency after just five months, and girls in the
program improved twice as fast in oral reading fluency as girls in neighboring schools, closing an existing gender gap (iREAD2 Midterm Study).

Additionally, Worldreader has a library of thousands of books available via a mobile phone app. Reading on Worldreader Mobile is particularly popular
with women, who spend on average 207 minutes reading per month, compared to 32 minutes for men (Reading in the Mobile Era, a study of Worldreader Mobile by UNESCO).

Across all Worldreader programs in Ghana, 145,00 readers per month access
digital books.